A Ball for Daisy

Bibliography
Raschka, Christopher. A ball for Daisy. Ill. by Chris Raschka. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-375-85861-1

Plot Summary
Chris Raschka successfully portrays a variety of emotions relating to loss with this wordless picture book. Quite simply, “This is the story of a dog and her ball”. Daisy and her red ball are the best of friends until a tragic event separate the two. But what Daisy doesn’t know is that an unexpected loss can come with an unexpected gain.

Critical Analysis
Author and illustrator Chris Raschka expresses the story of Daisy and her ball through the use of illustrations. Many of the illustrations focus on Daisy and her facial expressions. The action sequences, such as Daisy playing with her ball, zoom out for a wider view. The reader can emphasize with Daisy's emotions from the illustrations. For example, towards the beginning of the story Raschka has drawn four panels. The first panel shows a sleeping Dasiy, the second a yawning Daisy, and the third shows a panicked Daisy until she sees her ball beside her in the fourth panel.

Raschka’s illustrations are simple with a use of watercolor paints, but also ink and gouache. Primary colors adorn the cover of the book which are also prevalent throughout the book. The use of primary colors could be to exhibit the innocence of childhood. Daisy herself is a simple outline of gray, brown, and black ears with a smidge of blue in her nose and pink for her tongue. The other dog is a deep brown color, to represent the sadness Daisy is about to face. After her ball deflates, Daisy experiences a variety of heartbreaking emotions. The colors within the panels darken to represent her mood. When Daisy and her owner leave the dog park, Daisy's footsteps are heavy in the snow. Earlier scenes before the ball deflated portrayed light and airy steps. Daisy's sadness is also exhibited in later pages when she appears to sink into the couch.

Emergent readers will experience an emotional journey of loss through Daisy's facial expressions. Readers will also experience forgiveness. The brown dog and its owner present Daisy with a new blue ball at the dog park the next day. The blue of the new ball could represent Daisy’s past sadness. The color of the new ball could have also been another primary color Raschka chose to use. In any case, Daisy leaves the dog park with a new ball and a new friend.

Review Excerpts
2012 Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner
Starred Review, School Library Journal, August 2011: "Raschka’s genius lies in capturing the essence of situations that are deeply felt by children."
Starred Review, Horn Book, September/October 2011: "a story that is noteworthy for both its artistry and its child appeal."
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2011: “Rarely, perhaps never, has so steep an emotional arc been drawn with such utter, winning simplicity.”

Connections
This could be an inference activity using facial expressions to determine how Daisy is feeling in certain scenes.
For students in grades K-2, the teacher can hold up the book and have the students narrate what is happening verbally. The teacher could have sentence strips and students can decide which page the sentence could go for sequencing. For older students, they can work together or alone to compose their own narrative to go with the pictures.
In order to hook the reader before beginning the book, the teacher could lead a discussion on the students favorite toys. The teacher could ask “what would happen if someone broke your favorite toy? How would that make you feel?” A red ball could be the talking piece. Whoever holds the red ball can talk.
The teacher can introduce cause and effect with this book. Because the brown dog broke the red ball, Daisy is sad. Because Daisy is sad, she doesn’t want to play with her own, etc.