Tea, Tales, and Tomes

Go Textless: How Wordless Picture Books Build Language, Empathy, And Imagination

• Natasha • Season 2 • Episode 4

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What if I told you that you don't need text to raise a reader? What if the most powerful reading practice for growing language, empathy, and imagination uses no words at all? In today's epsisode, we welcome a wave of new listeners, tip our mugs to the Halloween specials that sparked it, and then head straight into the quiet magic of wordless picture books... books in which your child’s voice becomes the narrator and every page turn invites a new possibility.

I will speak about the science of wordless books, share a personal story, get into the nitty-gritty of actually "reading" wordless books, and lastly share a list of the best tried and tested wordless books for all ages. 

Ready to read the pictures and hear what your child has to say? Press play, save the book list from the blog or Instagram, and share this episode with a friend who loves stories. If this resonated, follow the show, leave a quick review, and tell us which wordless book you’ll start with. Your recommendations help our community grow.

Find us on Instagram @teatalesandtomes and don't forget to join us next time for more bookish wonder.

Podcast music by Lundstroem (Episode 1 onwards) and Audionautix (TTAT Trailer). Podcast edited by Timothy Wiggill.

Natasha:

Hello bookish friends. This is Natasha and you're listening to Tea Tales and Tomes where we are living our favorite lives, talking books and drinking hot beverages. So grab your cuppa and let's talk books. Something magical has happened with our little podcast over the last few weeks. We were growing in listenership pretty steadily, but as we sit here, we had a burst of listeners that was astronomical. In the space of one day, the podcast went from being listened to in 92 cities around the world to 312. What? That's 48 countries all over the world and 312 cities. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our new listeners. Welcome to this gentle part of the listening world. I hope you stay for the hot tea and warm conversation. So much of the extra interest was because of our Halloween special. Yes, it's October, which means our reading trail took a delightful little detour into the spooky woods. Because really, who can resist a friendly ghost and some cozy Halloween vibes? So if you haven't yet, don't forget to check out our performance-based Halloween specials, guaranteed to send a deliciously spooky tingle up your spine. To boot, it is also your ultimate Halloween reading guide for kids of all ages and adults too. But bookish friends, today we're circling back to the heart of what Tea Tales and Tomes is all about. Spreading the delight of reading as a reader raising readers. So here's a question for you. What if I told you that some of the best books for building language, imagination, and empathy don't have any words at all? That's right, today we're exploring the incredible world of wordless books for children, for adults, and for just about everyone who's ever loved a story that speaks straight to the heart. And as with everything, tea tales and tomes, this is going to be a science-backed joyride through storytelling, imagination, and the quiet kind of reading that just might change the way you see books forever. Do you have your hot drink in hand because I'm ready to talk books? So, how can kids learn to read, to talk, or to think in language from books that never say a single thing? Sounds kind of backwards, right? So my journey with wordless books started when my eldest was around four years old. He's nine now, so that's about five years ago. So his teacher at the time noticed that even though he was ahead in so many areas like reading and early math concepts, something subtle was going on. So they suggested that he might need to work on his verbal expression skills, which is a component of auditory processing. So essentially, this is the assessment of the spoken language in terms of information content. So you see a picture of a cat on a tree with a man climbing up, and you should say that there's a man climbing up a ladder to rescue the cat from the high branches because the cat is stuck, or something along that lines and that level of detail. But instead, my kid would say the man is climbing to get the cat. It's correct, but not detailed enough. So he seemed to follow everything, especially because he was advanced in some other areas, but if left unattended, as concepts got more detailed and more difficult, his compensating would not be enough. Verbal expression is really important. So naturally, being a reader, I thought the answer was more words, more reading, more talking, more explaining. But we were already doing all that and then some. But after talking with a specialist and trying a few exercises, I stumbled upon something that surprised me. It literally, okay, not literally, I figuratively fell off my chair. What worked best for him wasn't reading more words. It was actually wordless picture books. So one afternoon I pulled out a ball for Daisy by Chris Rashka. No text, just these soft, sketchy illustrations of a little dog and her favorite ball, and honestly, I remember thinking, what on earth am I supposed to do with this? No instructions, no words, just pictures. But then something magical happened. We sat quietly, side by side, just looking, and in that quiet, he started to tell the story with his face, his hands, his imagination. He was busy interpreting, connecting, feeling. He didn't need words to understand the story. He didn't need me to read aloud. He was literally living the story. Read aloud time here was just looking at a picture book and it was still awesome and it was doing all the right things. And that's when it clicked for me. Sometimes the best way to build language, build empathy, and build one's imagination is to actually take the words away. So during that time, that was five years ago, and since then I went completely down the rabbit hole of wordless books. What started for me as a tool to help with verbal expression turned into a full-blown fascination. These books have expanded how I see storytelling, learning, and even reading itself. So today I'm thrilled to share what I've discovered with you, why these silent stories matter, how to read them, and which ones might just capture your heart too. So let's start with the why. Why should we read wordless picture books? Wordless books are not just a whole cup of delightful, but they're also developmentally essential. So research from child development and literacy experts show that wordless books activate different parts of the brain than text-heavy books. So when children read, that's inverted commas, when they read the images, they engage in active storytelling, which strengthens visual literacy, that's the ability to interpret and make meaning from images, which is a key 21st century skill. It strengthens oral language and expressive vocabulary because children must find their own words to describe what's happening around them and in books. It strengthens comprehension and sequencing since they have to connect events and infer cause and effect. And lastly, critical thinking. So as they predict outcomes, interpret emotions, and create meaning without those textual cues. Sometimes textual cues, us reading aloud, the story right in front of them, gives them too much information and makes it a little bit too easy for them to do the predicting and the critical thinking. It does come. It does come with age. It's how we try to predict what's going to happen in Game of Thrones or whatever we are watching at the moment or reading. But it does require a little bit more effort. And when kids are young, it's so great to take away those textual clues so that they exercise those muscles. So I'm going to expand on all of these in a minute, but let's talk a bit more about the research because this is, after all, the Details in Tomes podcast, and I have to bring my scientific background into this. So one study found that children exposed to wordless books used more complex language when retelling stories than when reading text-based picture books. And another from the Harvard Graduate School of Education highlighted how wordless books promote shared dialogue between adult and child. Something text sometimes limits because we're focused on getting the words right or even just getting through and finishing the story. I'll raise my hand as hella guilty right here. So when you read a wordless book, you're actually giving a child a creative workout, strengthening their imagination, their emotional intelligence, and their linguistic flexibility all at once. And it's it's just awesome. But why is this important? Why should we care? I mean, when they're older, they can just chat GPT what they need. AI and other technologies will fill all the gaps, right? Wrong. So in an age when artificial intelligence can generate stories, compose music, heck, even paint, what we need more than ever is a solidification of what teaches us to think like humans. I'll say that again. A solidification of what teaches us to think like humans. AI can process information, but cannot experience wonder. AI can analyze data, but it cannot interpret meaning. So bookish friends, in this strange science fiction transfact, terminator reality that we're living in, there is nothing more radical than reading a book, and reading a wordless book is actually humanity in action. Here we have creativity born not of code, but of connection. So here's all the ways wordless picture books are going to help your growing child all through their lives. Yes, I did say all through their lives. Number one, critical thinking and inference. As children grow, especially into that middle grade year as the eight to twelve, wordless books challenge them to interpret, not just to receive information. Kids have to analyze visual clues, predict outcomes, and make inferences, the same mental muscles use to read complex texts, understand history, and even scientific reasoning. They learn that meaning is constructed. It's not just handed to them. And this is a vital skill for media literacy and critical thinking later on. And I think we can all agree that we could do with a lot more critical thinkers in this world. The long-term benefit, kids who are exposed to wordless picture books have stronger reasoning and analytical skills and better comprehension in text-based learning because they're used to filling in gaps and thinking between the lines. Number two, oral and written storytelling. So as kids get older, wordless books become powerful prompts for narrative creation, both the spoken and the written. So they practice turning visual cues into coherent stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. They build expressive language, descriptive vocabulary, and sentence structure, especially when they're invited to narrate or write their own stories and captions. And this is especially important for children who are shy, who are multilingual or even neurodiverse. Wordless books remove those linguistic barriers, giving them confidence to tell stories their way. There's no right or wrong. Kids can tell stories the way they want to without feeling like, ugh, I'm doing this incorrectly. The long-term benefit, improved writing fluency, communication clarity, and narrative organization. And all of this is essential when they are writing essays or doing creative writing in school or doing presentations or even in the scientific literature publishing sphere. Number three, perspective taking and empathy. Wordless books demand that readers read emotions and intentions through facial expressions, through their posture, and through imagery. Kids must imagine what characters are thinking or feeling without text to tell them, which develops theory of mind. Say what? This is essentially the ability to understand perspectives different from one's own. You know? Empathy? Yeah, empathy. So stories like Sidewalk Flowers or The Arrival will nurture compassion and cultural awareness. So these are wordless books that I'm going to mention again a little bit later on in the episode. And the long-term benefit here is emotional intelligence, empathy, and social understanding, which is foundational for leadership, for building relationships, for building collaboration. Number four, visual literacy. So in a world saturated with images, from memes to advertising, visual literacy is now as important as textual literacy. Wordless books will teach our children to interpret, to question, and to decode more efficiently. They learn about symbolism, about perspective, design, and how images can communicate ideas. And the long-term benefit here is the ability to critically analyze visual media, art, and all forms of digital communication, which is vital in fields like media, design, marketing, even science visualization. Also, it's a key tool in understanding when you are being fed propaganda or well-constructed marketing ploys. I want my kids to know, I'm sure you do too. Number five, creative flexibility and imagination. So older children begin to see that there is no single correct way to read a wordless book. Each reading can create a new version of the same story. It teaches us cognitive flexibility and adaptability. They learn that stories evolve, meaning changes, and creativity is a process, not a product. And the long-term benefit here is innovation and flexible thinking, key traits for problem solving, entrepreneurship, and artistic expression. Number six, cultural awareness and global thinking. So many, many of the modern wordless books like Sean Tan's The Arrival or Jeannie Baker's The Window use universal imagery to tell stories that cross language and cultural barriers. Kids learn that images can connect people who don't share the same words or the same worlds. How fascinating is that! It builds cross-cultural empathy and a global perspective. Skills that are crucial in our interconnected world, skills that perhaps presidents like Donald Trump could have done a little bit more with. The long-term benefit here, global citizenship, intercultural communication and inclusivity. And lastly, number seven, I think we're on number seven, right? Confidence and independence. As children grow, wordless books shift from parent reads to child to child interprets independently. There's no pressure to decode print or get words right. It's just there to make meaning in the way you want to make meaning. It encourages ownership of interpretation and the courage to trust one's imagination. And the long-term benefit here, confidence in independent learning, public speaking, and self-expression, which are essential for lifelong learning and leadership. In short, bookish friends, wordless picture books are thinking books. So I'm gonna take a very long sip of my tea right now, but when we come back, we're gonna get into the nitty-gritty of actually reading wordless picture books. So stay tuned. Ah, that was good. Can anything beat book talk and tea? I highly doubt it. Let's get back into our soiree, into the world of wordless books. Look, I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you. Getting into the mindset of reading a wordless picture book isn't easy. We're used to having words on the page, a picture or two, maybe a short discussion, if our little book dragons are so inclined. And now we just have pictures? You might sit there wondering, what do I do now? When do I turn the page? Are we speaking the story out loud? How much should I engage her? Should I correct when I clearly see something might be wrong? Should I point things out? Am I doing this all wrong? And when we go down this route of overanalyzing, it is going to make us not want to connect with these types of books at all. We're gonna buy them or borrow them and they're gonna sit on the shelves collecting dust. But don't worry, bookish friends, I've got you. Here's the secret. With wordless books, you're not reading, you're co-creating. Again, this is not read aloud time. This is the time for co-creation. If that's the mindset you go in with, you are well on your way to enjoyment. For us, when we were co-creating wordless books, what I do is I try to make sure that we have a solid block of really, truly uninterrupted time. It doesn't have to be a lot of time, five minutes, ten minutes, or fifteen minutes even. It just has to be truly uninterrupted. Not during making supper or in between watching a show or when everyone is flustered and rushing to another extracurricular activity, you know what I'm talking about. Creation needs focus. So when I read typical books out loud, my mind can sometimes drift because I'm performing words on the page. I might be thinking about the rice boiling on the stove or the checker's order I need to get in on time. But with wordless books, if you don't have a solid block, even a short block of five minutes, you may start to feel frustrated and you are not gonna enjoy the experience. And remember, as parents and primary caregivers, when it comes to books and reading aloud and reading together, it's always about connection. And you are not gonna feel that connection if you are feeling frustrated. So here are my tried and tested tips for an awesome wordless picture book experience with your little book dragon when you do have that solid block of time. For me, I've been finding that the best time is usually when we are in the car waiting for the other sibling to finish school or finish some extracurricular activity, or early in the morning on a weekend when I'm fresh, enjoying my tea. We're not rushing off to get something done. So number one, grab the book and take a slow look before you say a word. So you're just holding on to that book, let your child explore the images. You explore them yourself, just look, just turn the pages slowly. If they laugh or they giggle or they want to stop a bit, just let them. Number two, ask open-ended questions. So I usually will start with the cover. So once we've done that look through of all the pictures, I go back to the cover and I'll say something like, Hey, what do you think this book is gonna be about? What do you think is happening here? They usually get it spot on, but sometimes it's a lot more complex. And when I go to the recommendations part of the book, you'll see what I mean. Other open-ended questions that you could ask is how do you think this character feels now? What do you think will happen next? Man, all these questions are causing those neural pathways to fire so beautifully. Right here is magic in action. All those benefits we mentioned before, this is where you are planting those seeds for lifelong skills in advanced literacy, emotional growth, and creativity. The kind of skills that carry kids into adulthood as strong communicators, as innovators, and you know, most importantly, as empathetic humans. Just as an aside, all the information that I'm talking about is available on the blog, or you can just DM me on Instagram, so don't stress about writing anything down. Number three, model the storytelling. I think for me this is the most important part. So I find that the best way to do this is to tell them I'm gonna read one page and then you're gonna do the next one. So I start by narrating what I see for the first page, and then I pass the storytelling over to my child. But when it's my turn, so when I start, I make my narration full and descriptive to the nth degree. I describe the weather if I can, the characters, what they're wearing, time of day, possible sounds, essentially anything that I want my child to notice when they tell a story. Flowery language, dialogue, literally anything. The sky's the limit when it's your turn. This basically gives your child a kind of blueprint of sorts of what they should be looking at and looking for. So when it's their turn, I just kind of let them lead and gently guide them with those open-ended questions. And when you do this, the key thing is to keep your tone curious and interested as though you are both on this journey together. You need to try, sometimes I know it's hard, but we need to try to not make it sound as though there is a right way to look at things. Rather say, wow, it's so cool that you notice that. Why do you think that character is doing that? Or say, hmm, I wonder what's going to happen next. I want to find out, but let's guess first. Or how would you react to this? I think I would do XYZ. What would you do? Remember it's not a test, and remember you are co-creating. If it's a little kooky, that's fine. Actually, if it's kooky, that's awesome because you know your kid's gonna be excited about wanting to come back to these sorts of books. And number four, revisit the book. So each time you look at the same book, the story will change, and that's the whole point. It builds that flexibility, that adaptability, and the creativity. Every time we read a wordless book, we notice more. We may change names of characters and places, we may add details. So I remember with one word, this book is actually right here in front of me, and it's called Journey, and it's part of a trilogy. Yes, it's actually a trilogy of wordless books. And I read it to Kai. Well, I co-created with Kai when he was around six or seven. And the first read was such a huge stretch of the imagination, and we were both a little confused, trying desperately to fill in the gaps, because things were just like, What is going on? Oh shucks, let's go back a bit. And it was a little bit difficult to make the links. But after the first read-through, and once we went through all three books of the trilogy, the world that we originally imagined changed drastically. We understood the plot more, and it was just the most marvelous and fascinating experience. And that brings me to number four. Don't rush to name everything and get it right. Let silence, let imagination, and let observation do their work. Don't feel anxious if the plot doesn't make sense or your child missed a key part of the story. The more they expose to wordless books, the more their expertise and our own increases. And that's the wonder of these kind of open-ended stories. Okay, I just looked at the time and I have chewed your ear off and haven't given you a single recommendation. So I definitely think more tea is in order before we wrap up this episode with the best part, which of course is all the wrecks. Let's sub our tea and talk recommendations, bookish friends, because there are some truly stunning, wordless books out there for every age. What I'm gonna do is to kind of break these up into just three categories, which are your tiny tiny readers, which let's give it an arbitrary age of infants to about three years old, then four and up, and then seven and up. And the reason I'm doing this is because books for the youngest kids can be read by children and adults of all ages. And if a book may be dealing with more complex topics, I will mention it as we go through the recs. So for our youngest, so your infants to three and beyond, because like I said, any books recommended for the youngest kids can obviously be read by all the older kids. Firstly, we've got A Ball for Daisy by Frank Rashka. This was my first, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It's a heartwarming story about a dog and her favorite ball, and has themes of friendship and forgiveness, and it is a delightful addition to your shelf. Next up is Wave by Susie Lee, which is a simple, joyful dance between a girl and the ocean. Next is Pancakes for Breakfast by one of my favorite children's book authors, Tommy DePaula. It's a sweet, silly, and perfect little book, especially for kids that are just beginning to understand sequence. Next up, we've got Flashlight by Lizzie Boyd. This one is for kids who enjoy nighttime walks, camping, and the outdoors. It's brilliantly illustrated with the book almost completely black, except for a beam of light from the torch, which shows the world of nighttime creatures. It's just absolute genius. What else do I have here? Ah, The Snowman. It's a cute tale about a wish that comes true and the joy of new friendships, and with Christmas around the corner, even if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, it will be a very cute book to put on your shelf. And lastly, for this littlest group is Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman. This one, Goodnight Gorilla, is gonna make you and your kids laugh out loud as you see an exhausted zookeeper say goodnight to all the animals in the zoo and go to bed, only for them to sneakily follow him into his house just to snuggle up with him and his wife. It's cute and it's funny, it'll make the kids giggle. Perfect, perfect little bedtime read. Oh, oh yes, and before I go on to the next grouping, there's no need to scramble to take notes of all these recs. You will find them on my Instagram, on the blog post for this episode, or just message me on Insta and I will send the list straight to your DMs. So now we're moving on to the ages four and up, and again, these are totally arbitrary groupings. I'm just putting them here as four and up because maybe the story requires slightly more complex thoughts. However, we all know that babies and little kids are walking geniuses. So if they want to co-create with these books too, that's awesome. First up, rainstorm. So as I sit here and record, I've got the book in front of me and it is so beautiful. It's magical, it's atmospheric. This is a book that's going to take you and your little book dragon on a beautiful adventure. A young boy lives in a massive house, is super lonely until one day during a rainstorm he discovers a mysterious key. And that's where the adventure begins. We love the story so much that it kind of just stays in the magazine holder in the lounge so that we can be transported by the story whenever it rains. It's so good. Next, I mentioned this already, it's the trilogy by Aaron Becker called Journey, Quest and Return. So that's the titles of the three books in the trilogy. These books will blow your mind. They are simply genius. You'll be marveling at the ability to fit an epic story, the likes of The Lord of the Rings, into a picture book format and a wordless picture book to boot. If you enjoy fantasy fiction, magic, wizards, epic cinematic adventures, this one is for you. So Kai was sitting with me as I was just making notes for this episode. And as soon as I took these books off the shelves, he was devouring them again. I speak a lot about long-lasting shelf occupiers in Tea Tales and Tomes. And this is it right here. This is a book that will last a lifetime. From babies all the way to when your kids have their own kids. So let's move on. The next book is The Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell. We've got a girl in the story, she's lost in a snowstorm, a wolf cub also lost. How will they find their way home? As a parent, you are going to feel all the feels. And as someone who loves animal-human relationships, the story will fill your heart with such a satisfying warmth. So let's move to some marine vibes again with Flotsam by David Weisner. It's a story about a magical camera found by the sea. It's an extremely relatable tale that'll make you feel like going on a hunt for treasure by the seaside. David Weisner also penned Tuesday, which is also a wordless picture book. It's an award-winning picture book, actually, and it will leave you speechless. It's a kind of strange tale starting with floating frogs and is bound to get those creative juices flowing. You'll see that I'm not telling you too much about the stories because it's again about co-creating. So I don't want to take away that element from you as the readers of these books. Hmm, where to next? Ah, how could I forget this one? Chalk by Bull Thompson. Have you read Harold and the Purple Crayon? So chalk by Bull Thompson is kind of like that, but if Harold is chilled and fun, chalk leans more on the side of thrills and danger. It does not disappoint and will leave your kids with pounding hearts and a huge desire for a reread. I'm gonna post some stills of this on Instagram, so be sure to check those out during the next two weeks. And while we're talking about Bull Thompson books, Fossil is the book to read. If you, like me, have a child that's completely obsessed with all things prehistoric. In fact, you can't go wrong with any Bull Thompson books. So this is a good one to remember. Another author that hits all the right notes when it comes to wordless picture books is Daniel Mayeres. I'm probably pronouncing that incorrectly. So his books, The Neighbor Kid, and Float. Are both sweet, delightful, and great for all ages. Float, which is about the simple act of making a floattable boat during rainy weather, also has a fold-out boat for you to try it with your kids. So here's a book that's complete with craft and science all rolled into one. And lastly, Hike by Pete Oswald about a dad and child taking a hike, and their wonderful connection is great for your outdoor lovers. Now this one also has a conservation message, so it's one of my faves. The next group of books, my last group of books, is definitely for your older readers, so I'd say seven and up. First up, we've got Anno's Journey by Mutsimaso Anno. It's a wordless journey through the countryside, through farms and towns of northern Europe, and this is a book that cannot be rushed. You just have to look closely and you're gonna see familiar storybook characters, visual jokes and puzzles, tricks of perspective, and so much more. This is one that you and your kids are gonna pour over for hours. Then we have The Arrival by Sean Tan. It's a breathtaking visual novel about migration, belonging, and resilience. And here you have your empathy creators. Another sweet book that might even leave you with slightly wet cheeks is called Sidewalk Flowers by John Arno Lawson and Sidney Smith. And it's all about noticing beauty in everyday life, despite the rush and pace that we're always confronted with. Now, my last two recommendations are actually wordless graphic novels that have left me and the kids spellbound. The first one is the Owlie series by Andy Renton, and I would bet you one million rand. Then when your kids read this, they will immediately love it. And this is one of those books that can be for all ages. Although if you are reading or co-creating with little kids, you just have to be aware that you're gonna do a lot of the work. So Owl Lee is about an owl trying to make friends, despite the fact that they are a predator and all the forest creatures are kind of terrified of them. So it's not just lovely and sweet, but it's pretty unique in my experience. They're comic books, but they don't have a verbal element. Well, they there are some pictograms, and the animals think and speak in pictures, so kids can read these books by themselves. I just I can't recommend Ali enough. It is just a lovely reading, co-creating experience. The last one of my recommendations is called Wildful and it's by Kengo Kurimoto. So Wildful is suited to much more older kids. I would even go as far as saying 14 in art because it does deal with kind of bigger themes, but it's just a strikingly beautiful graphic novel that in as few words as possible immerses us into the piece of wild things. So those complex themes that I mentioned, some of them deal with overcoming grief, a coming together of people, and rediscovering nature. It's kind of like the secret garden for our times and in graphic novel format. It's in a word, this book is lovely. And that brings us to the end of the recommendations. Bookish Friends, my final thoughts. Wordless books remind us that language is just so much more than words. They're bridges between thinking, feeling, and seeing. For all kids, these books are saying you can tell a story too. So don't be afraid to let the pictures do the talking. And don't forget to join us next time for more bookish wonder.

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Natasha

Host
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Timothy Wiggill

Editor