Pool by JiHyeon Lee (Chronicle Kids)

If you’ve followed our blog, you’ll know how much we love a good quality, wordless picture book. The power of a wordless book for children of all ages, can be limitless. It allows the reader to create their own narrative and there’s a certain creativity that does with type of story.

In our opinion, ‘Pool‘ epitomises everything great about wordless picture books.

From the predominantly black and white images at the beginning of the story, to JiHyeon Lee’s warm and magical illustrations by the end of the book, we are taken on an unfurling underwater adventure.

We meet a solitary individual, italicised by the pencil line drawing, he seems a rather shy, lone figure, lost in his own world.

Dressed for a swim in a currently empty pool, he seems so small against the expanse of water.

But within seconds, a bunch of bumbling fools bundle into the pool, filling almost every square inch of the azure pool.

Through the crowd, the boy manages to find a spot to dive into and meets a companion.

Together they swim off for a more colourful underwater adventure, meeting the most weird and wonderful creatures along the way.

Their serene and surprising encounter almost plays out like a silent movie.

There is an immediate bond between the two water babies and their flourishing friendship is set to continue well beyond their watery meeting place.

This is one of our favourite picture books so far this year and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Chronicle have also produced a fabulous insightful post on ‘How to read a book with no words‘.