- Wordless Picture Books
- Ages 4–9
- Fantasy
Tuesday
A brilliantly strange wordless classic about frogs flying through a suburban night on lily pads. Funny, eerie, beautifully paced and perfect for children who love visual storytelling and surreal nonsense.
- Best for4–9
- FormatWordless
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Tone
- Whimsical
- Funny
- Absurdist
- Gentle
- Silly
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
On an otherwise ordinary Tuesday evening, frogs rise from a pond on flying lily pads and drift through a sleeping suburban neighbourhood. They hover past windows, watch television, startle a dog and leave behind just enough evidence to confuse the humans by morning. David Wiesner tells the whole story almost entirely through images, using cinematic pacing, deadpan visual comedy and a wonderful sense of surreal calm. The absurdity is instantly appealing to children, but the craft is sophisticated: the page turns, expressions and silent clues all invite close reading. Tuesday is one of the great wordless picture books because it gives children the thrill of telling the story themselves. It is ideal for reluctant readers, visual thinkers, classroom inference work and anyone who enjoys the question, 'What if something impossible happened while everyone was asleep?'
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 4–9
- Read aloud · 3–9
- Independent · 4–10
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Bedtime
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
4 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Wordless picture book
- Visual comedy
- Surreal animals
- Caldecott winner
- Reluctant readers
Avoid if
- Needs text led story
- Prefers realistic explanations
- Dislikes wordless books
Particularly good for children who are…
- Struggling with reading
- Reluctant reader
- Interested in art and creativity
In the classroom
How it works in school.
David Wiesner's wordless flying-frogs masterpiece — a gift for inference, prediction and suspense writing, and a delight for newer readers.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific delight is the lily pads taking off — frogs rising from a pond at evening, drifting through sleeping suburbs on flying lily pads, hovering past windows and startling a dog while everyone sleeps through it. The Wiesner Caldecott Medal wordless picture book that gives the child the story to tell.
- Magic powers
- Secret world
- Adventure and freedom
Why parents love it
The David Wiesner Caldecott winner — cinematic pacing, deadpan visual comedy, sophisticated craft inviting close-reading and inference work. Strong for reluctant readers and visual thinkers; classroom standard for picture-led storytelling.
- Beautiful illustrations
- Shared humour
- Conversation starter
- Great writing
About the author & illustrator
David Wiesner.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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