Welcome to my blog!

Today is the day that I receive my MLIS from Dominican University, and it seems fitting to commemorate this achievement with starting a blog!

For a little over two years, I have been studying a variety of topics related to library service, and for my final course I developed an independent study project about excellence in international wordless picturebooks. In addition to books deemed worthy through awards and honors by Caldecott committees, Notable Books for a Global Society, the Silent Books Contest, USBBY's Outstanding International Books, and the International Youth Library's White Ravens, I also reviewed many books that were part of IBBY's Silent Books from the World to Lampedusa project, which established the first library on the island of Lampedusa for local children and refugees from Africa and the Middle East. A spreadsheet of all of the books on those lists can be found here: Worldwide Wordless Book List

Many of these excellent wordless picturebooks are available for purchase and through interlibrary loan in the United States. With the assistance of ALA's International Relations Office, I had the privilege of participating in the ALA-BIB exchange program and spending time in Munich at the International Youth Library reviewing the books in their collection that I was unable to access here.

The purpose of this blog is to share what I have learned with a wider audience, including my impressions of individual books, ideas to consider in relation to this specific type of resource, and suggestions for how to use them in library and classroom settings. Over time, I will include all of the books that I reviewed for my project, along with recently published titles and books that I consider noteworthy even if they weren't on one of the lists mentioned above.

One of the many beautiful things about wordless picturebooks is that they can be enjoyed by people diverse in many ways. Since there is no barrier of language, they appeal to audiences well beyond the borders of the country in which they are published. I invite you to share them with me, and offer your ideas so that together we can give a greater voice to wordless picturebooks from around the world.