Book Description
for The Blue Table by Chris Raschka
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A table is the central character in this unusual story of a family of three (a child and two parents) preparing for another family to join them for a special Thanksgiving dinner. The scene never moves from an overhead shot of a blue table that holds the visual cues telling the story of the day, from breakfast with coffee, newspaper, and crayons to several scenes of food preparation to the setting of the table and enjoyment of the feast. There are no humans in the illustrations until the very end; even then, it's just hands and arms (three people with white skin and three with brown skin). The entire story as told through the objects on the table requires a great deal of inference on the part of the readers in order to interpret the day's events. Raschka's sunny watercolor and cut-paper collage illustrations are playfully inventive, while the table's whimsical legs make it seem like a living creature. (Ages 3-7)
CCBC Choices 2021. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.