Stylistic Elements in A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

Chris Raschka’s 2012 Caldecott Medal winning book, A Ball for Daisy, is a fun children’s picture book about a dog named Daisy and her love for her favorite red ball. The story shows how happy she is when she plays with her ball. Daisy takes her ball with her everywhere. She plays with her ball, sleeps with her ball, takes her ball with her on walks in the park, and more. One day, Daisy’s ball was snatched by another dog wanting to play. Unfortunately, the other dog accidentally destroyed the ball. Daisy is very upset about this. Her owner threw the ball in the trash and took Daisy back home. Her happiness is recovered instantly when the owner of the other dog gives Daisy a new blue ball.

A Ball for Daisy is a great book for teaching children the importance of friendship and sharing. Since the other dog broke Daisy’s ball he replaced it with a new one to make her feel better. Daisy was so excited that she forgave the other dog and did not even care about her old ball anymore. This book shows children appropriate ways to act when something happens that upsets them. Most children know how it feels to lose or break one of their favorite toys and can relate to how Daisy may feel.

Unlike most picture books, there are zero words in A Ball for Daisy. Chris Raschka did a great job of telling the story without any words. This book allows you to interpret the story in your own way without the words telling you one set story. The arrangement of the illustrations feels like you are watching a movie in slow motion where you put the story together yourself and provide your own words. The pictures contribute meaning that words may not be able to do. Chris Raschka does an excellent job of conveying a story by using just pictures.

Through Chris...

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...ing at the book together as a class, the teacher could have students come up with their own words to the illustrations. This will teach children how to look at the illustrations and develop word associations. This book also teaches about friendship. Another good idea is have students create their own story through illustrations about friendship. This book is ideal for non-readers who are just beginning to show interest in reading books. They can read this story on their own without help from an adult. It could also be used for older readers who are working on building their skills in written expression. With this picture book, teachers can introduce the concept of helping students deal with disappointments in order to gain solving problem strategies for dealing with sadness, loss, and disappointment. This shows them that things usually turn out all right in the end.