Chalk

Thomson, B. (2010).  Chalk.  Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish for Children.

This book is listed on the Notable Books for Children for 2010.

Exposition:  Chalk is a very intriguing children's picture book about imagination.  Three children go to the playground on a rainy day. 

Conflict:  What can they do on this rainy day?

Rising Action:  They discover a bag of chalk and begin to draw.  The items they draw come to life.  The first child draws a sun that takes away the rain. The second child draws butterflies that fill the air.

Climax:  When the third child draws a dinosaur and it comes to life, the children try to hide from it.

Falling Action:  One of the children draws a rain cloud and it begins to rain again.

Resolution:  The rain washes away all the chalk drawings and the dinosaur disappears.

The illustrations are beautifully done by painting with acrylic paint and colored pencils.  The author chose this type of art to best identify with the scene he was composing.  The plastic body of the dinosaur ride needed to be shiny and the acrylic paint worked wonderfully.