Next Door

A wordless book all about communication, Next Door by Deborah Kerbel and Isaac Liang will have readers thinking about the ways we communicate.

A deaf boy has just moved to a new neighbourhood. He is getting used to his new home and the community by heading out for a walk with his mom. When they arrive back home, they meet their new neighbours who only speak Arabic. Even though the boy and his neighbour speak different languages, they find a way to communicate and begin to build a friendship.

Wordless books can be tricky for some people. When there is no text to read, we can often times not realize the richness of the story and the ways we can incorporate these books into our reading lives. Adult readers may find it hard to share the story with young readers but the magic in them is that the readers themselves, especially those who are not yet accessing text, are able to read the pictures and tell their own story about what they are seeing. The other magical thing is that the story can be a little bit different each time you pick up the book because, perhaps there is something new in the illustrations that was missed the last time the book was read.

In Next Door, there is an obvious message, there are many different ways of communicating and even though we may not speak the same language as each other, we can still communicate in other ways, through body language and through pictures and drawings. I love how Deborah Kerbel has included American Sign Language in the story. For many readers, this may be their first experience with ASL, for others, they may be fluent and, through this story, can share their language with their peers. 

Isaac Liang’s illustrations are the heart of this book. From two page spreads to vignettes that are comic style, the who book is a feast for the eyes. I absolutely love how an author and an illustrator can come together on a wordless story.

We need more diverse experiences represented in the picture books we share with our young readers. There just are not many picture books featuring characters with disabilities. Next Door is an excellent book to share to encourage conversations about disability and communication with young readers.