The One-Worded Book

At our most recent trip to the library, I found a gem of a book! We took it along with the rest of our haul on vacation. I read it to my kiddos before bedtime after a day of playing in the snow in the woods. I laughed, my kids laughed, my mother-in-law laughed and told my husband he had to read it, and he laughed! It was fun, simple, and endearing. The book is called Ball. On the front it reads, "Word and pictures by Mary Sullivan."

Don't let his sad look fool you, this dog loves to play! I had interrupted his dinner. Rocky will fetch his ball until the cows come home!

There was no need for more than one word, it was brilliant! Although ball is the only word used for dialogue, emotion and expression are not lacking! The characters are adorable. Through the illustrations and the annotation of the word ball, the dogs personality is clear. An enjoyable book for anyone, but we particularly loved it because it reminded us of Rocky.

As I think about what I can learn from this book as I move forward, a couple things come to mind. First, illustration can make or break a story. As an author who will likely have no say in the matter, it makes me nervous. Dialogue can certainly keep the pace of a story where it needs to be, but with good illustration, it's not the only method that should/could be used.

That's it for now! I've got some work to do!


Here's Mary Sullivan's website:
http://www.marysullivan.com