Recently I read the brilliant RETURN by Aaron Becker with my class. The children hadn't read the first two stories in the JOURNEY trilogy and I wanted to see what they could do with the text knowing they had no background knowledge of the story arc. I used the text as a springboard for writing (after stealing the idea from a colleague- Thanks, Rachel) and was amazed at the power the wordless book gave to my students' creativity. I have read wordless picture books many times before but this was the first time I had used one in this way. Because they hadn't read Journey and Quest, the children's imaginations were bursting with questions and wonderings. Where did the red door come from? Why did the man go through the red door? Who had left the red ball behind? What was he looking for? Why doesn't the girl want to come home? Is the bird special? What relationship does the girl have to the boy? All these questions were floating in the air as we were reading the book. Once we . . .