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Free Fall
When he falls asleep with a book in his arms, a young boy dreams an amazing dream-about dragons, about castles, and about an unchartered, faraway land. And you can come along.
Paperback, 32 pages
Published
September 18th 1991
by HarperCollins Publishers
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What a book! Free Fall is a picture book which tells the story of a boy who falls asleep after looking at an atlas and has the most in depth, mythical dream. Without one written word this book is fantastical and quite extraordinary. Snap shots from the book include the boy meeting chess pieces to him becoming a giant but with the most intriguing background scenes including mazes, forests and an oversized library.
I think this book could be used with upper KS1 children of all abilitie...more
I think this book could be used with upper KS1 children of all abilitie...more
L-Crystal Wlodek
rated it
This wordless picture book has won the Caldecott Honor in 1989 and is intended for children in third-fifth grade. This story is about a boy who falls asleep with an atlas in his arms. He then has a dream where his bedspread turns into an aerial view of the earth. On his journey, he plays chess on an enormous chess board complete with mortal playing pieces. This medieval welcoming party leads the boy to a castle with dragons where he continues his search for an elusive map.
This story...more
This story...more
I was surprised that I disliked a Caldecott. The cover has a boy on a brown leaf flying over a stream. Inside the book you see the boy asleep with an atlas open on top of him. This is a wordless book. The atlas page becomes checkerboard land which becomes a chess set which becomes a royal village (and then with a forest growing through it). Maybe it was the lack of words, but I found this book too unpredictable and helter skelter for me. e.g., the drinking glass knocked on its side in one of the...more
Kevin Ryan
added it
This book is a picture book, without words, about a boy who falls asleep and falls into dreamland about imaginary creatures inspired from the things that surround his bed, like his toys and fish tank with gold fish.
Audience: Grade 2-4
Genre: Fiction Adventure
Topic: Dreams
This is a great book for an independent read or a shared read
This particular book’s pictures are astounding. This book really would really be able to reach out to children’s imagin...more
Audience: Grade 2-4
Genre: Fiction Adventure
Topic: Dreams
This is a great book for an independent read or a shared read
This particular book’s pictures are astounding. This book really would really be able to reach out to children’s imagin...more
This contains some really lovely ideas behind the pictures as forms flow into one another across the pages. As the author/illustrator note sin the back, it really is much stronger without accompanying text and yet still manages to carry a story. The design of the book is also very carefully considered by paying attention to the white margins around the pictures, breaking off the dream sequence from the beginning and concluding points. Occasionally some of the expressions seem a little awkward.
Free Fall is a picture book by David Wiesner. This book confused me the first time through, I could not make the subtle connections between the pages, which seem to interconnect with each other. Once I read it through a second time the connections were more evident and I liked it a lot more. I am not sure children would appreciate the style or detail of the pictures; it is a good book if you are wanting to open the childs eyes to a new type of art.
This book has hardly any words, but tells a full story in the illustrations. We like it because we have a lot of not-yet-readers and reluctant readers in our family and we were able to sit down and enjoy a book in a group and they could look at on their own without frustration. There seem to be very few books that seem to help the grade school level kids learn that books are enjoyable and most of the one's I've found are by David Wiesner.
As always, David Wiesner has created a visually fascinating ride that feels like a full story to most readers (including myself) despite the fact that not a single word is uttered by any of the characters. The visceral nature of this book has won it many fans since its publication in 1988, and surely will win it many more followers in the future. I would give one and a half stars to, "Free Fall."
1989 Caldecott Honor
A young boy falls asleep reading an atlas. His comforter transforms into a flying carpet and takes him to medieval lands complete with dragons and a life sized chess board. Everyday objects change shape; leaves into swans, castle walls into a dragoon. Another wordless book. This book is harder to follow that later Wiesner wordless books.
A young boy falls asleep reading an atlas. His comforter transforms into a flying carpet and takes him to medieval lands complete with dragons and a life sized chess board. Everyday objects change shape; leaves into swans, castle walls into a dragoon. Another wordless book. This book is harder to follow that later Wiesner wordless books.
There is magic in these illustrations, and a little bit of M.C. Escher. I take that back; there's a lot of M.C. Escher. And the little chess pawn characters are so cute. This is a very imaginative story, with so much substance that I had to turn back the pages several times, noticing things I hadn't seen before, and making sure I didn't miss a single detail.
This is David Wiesner's first book, and it was given a Caldecott honor medal. It seems to be the best example of a Wiesner book that reminds us he is a watercolor painter. Many of his other books are created using dark or bold colors, and its often easy to forget he uses watercolor most prominently as a medium.
Free Fall is the story of a boy who plays a magical chess game with pieces that are alive. In this dream world, the boy meets dragons made of castles and hops in and out of books, in...more
Free Fall is the story of a boy who plays a magical chess game with pieces that are alive. In this dream world, the boy meets dragons made of castles and hops in and out of books, in...more
This book probably would best appeal to younger kids just learning to read (since this is a full-on picture book). Lovely illustrations, but the story felt a little disjointed like a Lewis Carroll story. It still would be an imaginative read for kids to further go on and read more.
Shaundell
rated it
A wordless picture book. A young boy falls asleep with an atlas and then dreams of faraway lands involving chess, flying leaves, castles, swans. The idea for this story came when David Wiesner was studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and created a painting nine feet long.
Wordless picture book - loved it!
He captured the dream state of thoughts brilliantly!
I was looking for an adventure picture book to read to demonstrate the adventure genre and found this auther. He's super creative, and I've loved everything I've read-no, looked at-so far!
He captured the dream state of thoughts brilliantly!
I was looking for an adventure picture book to read to demonstrate the adventure genre and found this auther. He's super creative, and I've loved everything I've read-no, looked at-so far!
I really couldn't say we read this one; there are no words in this book. But it shows such a wonderful illustrated story that you cannot help telling the story. We will be getting this one from the library again, so the kids can tell its story.
Another fantastically illustrated masterpiece by David Wiesner. This one is mystical and mythological as a boy floats from one dream sequence to another. It's a wonderful book to look at with children, pointing out all of the fascinating details.
Anna
rated it
Caldecott honor book by David Wiesner - all pictures, no words. A young boy falls asleep and the everyday pieces of his life are incorporated into his dreams in wild and imaginative ways. Not my favorite of Wiesner's, but well done nonetheless.
I know it got awards and everything. I was just not as impressed with a dream about going into a book and the things in the book coming out of the book. Too much of a stretch for me. But as usual, the illustrations are beautiful.
Beautiful illustrations, as expected, but not my favorite Wiesner book. It's a dream sequence, and while I get the concept, the book feels kind of disconnected and odd. Didn't hold my kids' interest the way Tuesday and Flotsam did.
A boy falls asleep while reading and is taken on a magical, mythical, map-filled adventure to a number of different worlds before a flock of swans and fish bring home to his bed.
Wiesner is the King of Wordless Picture Books.
Wiesner is the King of Wordless Picture Books.
David Wiesner is talented in the way he uses his ways of visual storytelling. His Caldecott Honor book, Free Fall, tells the story of a boy who falls fast asleep with a book and dreams a dream of adventures and strange lands.
This book is about a young boy who falls asleep while looking at the atlas. He dreams of traveling throughout the world and with the things that are next to his bed. This book can send your imagination anywhere.
Yay for reading books while sorting through boxes and boxes of them! Nicely illustrated...seems soft and dream-like, but I skimmed through it pretty quickly. I'll probably have to "read" it again tomorrow at work ;)
Cheryl in CC NV
added it
I'm sorry; I just don't get this. Some of the pictures are interesting to me, but otherwise I can't form a reaction - so I'm leaving the stars blank so as not to weight the average star rating.
This book had no words at all, except for the inside cover flap. I really liked how the pictures morphed into one another. The illustrations sort of glided across the page, taking elements from the last picture and turning them into something different in the next. I think that a child looking through this book would have lots of things to marvel at. While I thought this book was quite imaginative and thought-provoking, I didn't get into it as much as I would have liked. I would still proba...more
This interesting book has illustrations but no words. I don't think it is quite as good as some of the author's other works.
Caldecott Honor. Another wordless, beautiful, imaginative one from Wiesner...although I think Flotsam is still my favorite.
An illustration of a dream. Cleverly and beautifully executed, though perhaps not as fully fleshed out as Wiesner's later work.
Illustrated by: Daid Wiesner
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
Date Published: 1988
Genre:Picturebook
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
Date Published: 1988
Genre:Picturebook
I watched this on youtube with my son. It was great to "read" it with the musical background.
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During David Wiesner's formative years, the last images he saw before closing his eyes at night were the books, rockets, elephant heads, clocks, and magnifying glasses that decorated the wallpaper of his room. Perhaps it was this decor which awakened his creativity and gave it the dreamlike, imaginative quality so often found in his work.
As a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, Wi...more
More about David Wiesner...
As a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, Wi...more
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Sep 16, 2011 06:48am
Sep 16, 2011 06:59am