*Yawn* “Mommy! This book doesn’t have any pictures!” That is most likely going to be your child’s reaction when they see The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak for the very first time. Even if they don’t want to sit with you, just start reading. I guarantee they will come running over when you start reading the words. This is one of the most unique and outrageous interactive books for kids.
The audience interaction in this book is a bit different than the other interactive books for kids featured this month. The other three books this month will ask you to physically touch and “manipulate” the story by hand. The Book with No Pictures interacts directly with the reader. The reader must read exactly what is on each page, and this is where the sillies come in. The words are outrageous, nonsensical, and totally preposterous, the perfect recipe for toddler shenanigans. They’ll go bananas as you read the goofy words and you’ll revel in their giggles. Toddler mayhem + literacy engagement + parent-child connection = the foundation of My Book Bud.
In this post, you’ll find four literacy activities related to The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak. The activities will play on the book’s whimsy while also providing strong and meaningful practice of literacy skills. These fun activities will have you inferring, reading with expression, building vocabulary, and becoming an illustrator in one of the best interactive books for kids. Who would have thought that a book with no pictures would be your child’s favorite new book??
Table of Contents
The Book with No Pictures
Author: B.J. Novak
Published by Dial Books, 2014
Summary: A book with no pictures?! How boring, right? Wrong! Rule number one: read every word, no matter what, and that’s where the fun begins. Strap in for a goofy, quirky, and nonsensical ride that will have your little one in stitches. You won’t believe your child will fall in love with a picture-less book!
Skills to Tackle with Interactive Books for Kids (The Book with No Pictures):
Inference: Best for ages 2.5-5
Readers make an inference when they “read between the lines.” They use their background knowledge and the text evidence in front of them to uncover something that is not directly stated by the author. We do this in our daily lives, making it a stand-out skill to start building on.
For Example:
If you opened the fridge and saw your strawberries were covered in white fuzz, you would make the inference that they went bad and are no longer good to eat. No one had to tell you, you just looked at the evidence of the white fuzz and combined it with your previous knowledge of rotten fruit to make the inference.
Interactive books for kids are some of the most fun and engaging books out there. So get ready for some giggles!
Even though this book has no pictures in it, it is incredibly engaging and goofy. The book is intended for an adult to read aloud to a child. It starts off by telling the reader to read every word in the book. This is quickly followed by pages filled with silly phrases, nonsensical noises, and playful words.
This book really helps to pose the questions: What makes something “boring” and “serious?” What makes something “silly” and “fun?” You and your child can use the book to discuss these ideas together.
Example Conversation:
- Parent: When I first showed you this book, did you think it was going to be boring or exciting?
- Child: I thought it was going to be so boring!
- Parent: Why??
- Child: Well, it doesn’t have any pictures in it. Usually when you’re reading to me, I like to look at the pictures.
- Parent: Yeah, me too! Pictures can make the book more exciting. After I read the story to you, did you change your mind?
- You might have to lead your child here and say, “Did you think it was “silly” or “goofy?”
- Child: I thought it was so funny!
- Parent: What made it silly?
- This is where the inference will take place so be sure to ask this question.
- Child: It was so funny when you were saying all the silly words. I was cracking up when you had to say all those weird words in a row!
- Parent: That really made me laugh too! If the book didn’t have any silly words, how would it be different?
- Child: It would have been really boring. I probably wouldn’t have listened to you reading at all!
- Parent: So, what do you think makes something silly?
You might have to give a couple of examples here. You are trying to get your child to now make a connection to their own lives.
My kids will laugh at anything fart related *sigh*. Unfortunately, the immature kid in me also thinks fart related content is funny too. We always laugh when talking about toots and farts, within reason, of course.
Be sure to lean into what your kids think is truly funny so that you can really connect in the moment.
You can also go in the other direction and ask what your child thinks is boring or what makes something boring to them. There is still an opportunity for you to be silly and laugh with them even with this question. Keep the conversation lighthearted, but who knows, you might even learn something new about your child!
When your child is having fun, it not only opens the door to connection, but also to learning. Interactive books for kids can tackle both, making them top-tier toddler books!
Free Printable!
Use the free printable below to spark conversation and play. Cut out the pictures, then sort them into the bored or excited category. The best part? There are no wrong answers, this activity is totally subjective! After your child finishes sorting, talk about it together. Pick a few pictures from each category and ask why they think that activity is boring or exciting. For extra fun, try sorting the pictures yourself after your child. I bet your answers will be wildly different!
Fluency and Expression: Best for ages 2-6
Reading fluently means to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. While fluency is important when you are reading silently in your head, in this activity we will be focused on oral fluency (or reading out loud). This is a skill that takes a lot of repetition and practice.
Interactive books for kids are perfect for this as they are typically short, sweet, and funny. When a story has a lot of silliness, the reader can really play up the fluency.
Your child might not be old enough to read any words yet, but the more they hear you model how to read fluently and with lots of expression, the more they will understand how to apply those skills once they can read on their own.
Because there are no pictures in this book, it is absolutely necessary for the reader to read both fluently and with a lot of expression to engage the audience (your child in this case). So, toss on your best acting hat and put on the performance of your lifetime!
Silly Voice “Warm Up”
To really build your child’s anticipation of the story, pretend that you are a world class singer and you have to “warm up” your voice:
- Tap your throat
- Sing “La, la, la, la, laaaaaaaaaa”
- Do some tongue twisters:
- She sells seashells by the seashore.
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
- Make some silly noises with your lips and tongue.
You get the idea! Really muck it up and get the excitement going!
When you start reading, use a calm or neutral voice, but once the story instructs you to read every single word without exception, turn on the heat!
Use silly or different voices.
Belt some parts out in a lyrical, whimsical, and sing-songy voice.
Read some of the pages really fast and others really slow.
There is so much opportunity to be outrageous and wacky while reading this book, and the more you lean into it, the more fun you and your child will have together!
Your child will learn that stories should not just stay at one monotone pace or volume from start to finish. A story ebbs and flows. When a story is more exciting, it tends to be quicker. When there are explanation marks, it should get louder! Keep this idea in mind when reading any book with your child. Books should be exciting! Take the story’s cues and make them worth listening to!
Extend the activity by applying fluency and expression to some rhymes or songs your child is familiar with.
Example Conversation:
- Parent: Let’s sing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” together, but let’s change it. The first time we’ll sing it at a regular pace. The second time we’ll sing it SUPER fast. The last time we’ll sing it SUPER slow.
- Parent: That was so much fun! Now let’s try a different song. This time, let’s sing the ABC’s, but we are going to sing it in Cookie Monster’s voice first, and then Elmo’s voice next.
My kids absolutely love singing in Cookie Monster’s voice. I usually sing them a song before bed, and they always ask me to sing to them in his voice. It is a guaranteed laugh and the perfect way for us to end the day giggling and connecting before saying goodnight.
If you are not Sesame Street fans, no problem. Pick another character that your child loves and try to imitate them. Otherwise, just sing in a goofy voice like a pirate, robot, or alien voice.
These super simple activities will help your child practice fluency and expression with songs they are already familiar with, which will help lay the foundation for when they are ready to read independently.
Interactive books for kids are fun and playful. Because they aren’t so serious, kids can feel more comfortable letting loose and having fun. But they’ll only act like that if you do. So don’t be scared, turn on the goofiness!
Vocabulary Development: Best for ages 3-6
Reading is the best way to build your child’s vocabulary. Boosting a child’s vocabulary assists in their reading comprehension, communication skills, and overall critical thinking.
This book includes many made up words that are complete gibberish. Use these silly words to create your own vocabulary, and teach your child some valuable skills.
Many interactive books for kids are off the wall and nonsensical, but that’s right in a toddler’s wheelhouse. So this is your toddler’s time to shine!
Pick two or three of the goofy words and have your child give them “definitions.” The definitions can be absolutely anything as the words themselves are completely made up.
For Example:
- Glur-ga-wocko
- Made up definition: a dancing monkey
- Ba-Doongy face
- Made up definition: a happy, smiling donkey
After your child comes up with a definition (they may need help doing this-be super silly and come up with something super wacky), try putting the word into a sentence using it correctly based on your definition.
For Example:
- The hairy, long-armed glur-ga-wocko twirled around the jungle until he was too tired to boogie anymore.
- The shaggy, gray ba-doongy face smiled a big-toothed grin after she let out a big “he-haw!”
The challenge here is to include context clues around the word so that if someone off the street heard this sentence, they might be able to define the “crazy” word.
When a child hears a new vocabulary word, being able to use it properly in a sentence shows mastery over the word. This shows that the child can not only read/understand the word in context and define the word, but can effectively manipulate it into a sentence with correct punctuation and grammar, making it an incredibly advanced way to recognize and use the word.
Mix in real words and other made up words from the book and follow the same steps as above. This will really help your child build on their vocabulary skills.
You and your child can create your own language and silly vocabulary! My kids love talking in a nonsense language. It always makes them laugh when we have a back and forth conversation with words that are totally made up! Give your silly words definitions and see if you and your child can have a “made up” conversation that actually makes sense!
Overall this activity is so valuable as it works on vocabulary building, context clues, and using words correctly in conversation. Your child will practice a complicated skill in a relaxed and lighthearted way paving the road for complex critical thinking down the line.
Interactive books for kids create an atmosphere of joy and comfort which opens the pathway to learning.
Expansion Activity: Best for ages 2-6
Bring these silly words to life and become the illustrator! This book is so much fun without any illustrations, but what if it DID have pictures? What would they look like? Tap into your child’s imagination as there is no wrong way to tackle this activity. Interactive books for kids open a world of imagination. Let your child take the lead here. You might be surprised at where they take you!
Consider starting with the page that has a lot of nonsensical words as there is so much opportunity to pull from. Read it out loud to your child, and ask them to draw what comes to mind when they hear the words!
This will not only push your child creatively, but also lay the foundation for visualization. When we read as adults, we visualize (or make a movie) in our mind based on the words in the book. Drawing a picture of what they visualize when they hear the words in this book will help bring that idea to life.
Do this activity along with your child. I bet you and your child with illustrate wildly different things. This will help emphasize that visualizing is personal to each individual reader and that everyone pictures things a bit differently.
Because there is no right or wrong answer, your child may make their illustrations dinosaurs, mermaids, or monsters. You’ll likely see their current interest depicted in the picture they draw. That’s great! Encourage that. It’s also fine if they decide to just draw big, bold colors without any actual entity in the picture at all.
If your child is really struggling or they are not able to draw things just yet, they can dictate their ideas to you. Do your best to draw what they are saying and then have them color the pictures in, and make it a team effort!
Drawing and coloring are fabulous calming activities. Encourage lots of creative freedom and you’ll open the door to a peaceful and loving connection with your child.
Interactive books for kids may not seem like they have much depth to them at first glance, but there’s a whole world there to explore. You just have to open up!
To Wrap Things Up:
I guess as it turns out, not all books need pictures after all. Interactive books for kids require imagination, creativity, and a willingness to let loose and be silly! The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak is a wonderful book to help you explore a deep connection with your child while truly learning some valuable skills. So, don’t be scared, open that book with no pictures!
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