Reading with the Girl: Ball

When I first saw this book on the shelves at the book store I thought that the cover looked so familiar to me…like a book from my youth. I picked up Ball, and come to find out the book had just recently been published. I had to take a look, because it evoked such nostalgia in me.

Author/ Illustrator: Mary Sullivan
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (April 2, 2013)
Prices: Hardcover - $12.99
Reading level: 0 to 6 years old
Interest level: Preschool and Lower Grades
Physical Characteristics: 7 x 8.5 inches, 40 pages
ISBN: 0547759363
Genres: Board Book, Children’s Fiction

Subjects:

Loneliness – Juvenile Fiction

Humorous Stories

Dogs

Annotation:
All that the little dog in Ball wants is for someone to throw his ball for him.

Summary:
A young girl is asleep in bed with her dog and the dogs ball. They wake up and she throws the ball a few times for her dog. Then she goes to school. The sad dog then desperately looks for someone to throw his ball for him, until he falls asleep. Interestingly, the only time saturated colors enter this story are in the dog's dreams. Even in his dreams he thinks about the ball being thrown. Finally, his owner comes home and he has someone who loves him to throw the ball.

Evaluation:
There are many charming things about this comic book style/ children’s graphic novel. One is the inventive muted color scheme. The mustards, browns and orange sepia tones of this book are not traditionally seen in kids’ books, but they make the book both unique and seemingly classic. Another lovely thing about this book is that it consists of only one word – Ball. The punctuation, size of the word, and capitalization of the word ball determine what the ball means, and move the forward story. This book is so much fun to read, and it was lovely to watch my daughter catch on to the fact that there was only one word and her inflection and volume would matter in how she read the story.

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