There once was a little girl who loved stories, she loved how the words and pictures took her to new and secret places that existed in a world all her own. – The Whisper

Pamela Zagarenski has written and illustrated a magical picture book about a little girl who borrows a very special book from her teacher’s bookshelf, only to find that the words have disappeared from the pages. Broken hearted, the little girl begins to cry when a soft whisper encourages her to use her imagination to create her own story as she reads the magical picture book.

As the little girl begins to use her imagination, the story she is creating continues to grow and grow. She imagines characters and music and food and a party. She imagines a beginning, a middle, and an end. She imagines conversations about cake, wizards, talking tigers, and enormous white whales. With every page the little girl turns, she imagines the most magnificent stories that captivates her long into the night.

The next day the girl prepares to return to school with her teacher’s book when a fox stops her to return the words that had fallen out of the book she borrowed. Rushing on to school, the little girl tells her teacher about the fox and the words and the stories she had imagined, grateful for the adventure she had experienced.

I love this book! I love how the author creates not only visually pleasing illustrations but strings words together to tell the story of the little girl who listens to the whisper encouraging her to use her imagination.

This book would be an excellent choice to encourage students to explore wordless picture books, or venture into creative writing and illustrating. This book could be easily paired with an interesting picture prompt for students to exercise their own imagination and story telling skills. Young children are great story tellers, and this book pairs well with a lesson to develop writing skills as students consider what elements are needed for a well developed story. Whether it is used to introduce writing, or to refresh creative writing interest, this book has great potential for use in the classroom.

Ideas for Classroom Incorporation of The Whisper

• ELA: creative writing, writing structure, story elements, visualization, imagery, figurative language, fiction, personification, types of books