The Dot – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Start small, grow creative confidence.
Children’s book title: The Dot.
Children’s author: Peter H. Reynolds.
Genre: Children’s picture book.
Published by: Walker Books.
ISBN: 9781844281695.
Recommended for children aged: 4-7.
First published: Paperback October 204.
This children’s book is ideal for: Children who need a gentle push to try, make a start, and see where their ideas lead.
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Our review:
Vashti is stuck in art class, staring at a blank sheet that might as well be a wall. Her teacher lightens the mood with a quick joke about a polar bear in a snowstorm, then offers the line that changes everything: Just make a mark and see where it takes you.
Vashti presses her marker to the paper and makes a single dot. When the teacher asks her to sign it, that tiny mark becomes hers, and the moment lands without fuss. At the next lesson, her dot is hanging in a frame above the desk. Pride is not her first feeling. Instead, she is spurred on. She decides she can make a better dot, which opens the door to play. She tries red, purple, yellow, and blue. She mixes colours, experiments with size, and even makes a dot by leaving the space empty. The airy linework and bright washes keep the pages breezy and inviting.
The work builds to a small school show. A younger child admires the display but worries that he cannot draw a straight line. Vashti passes on the same nudge she received: make a mark, sign it, and see what happens. Confidence travels from one child to another, and it feels completely natural.
The story is lean and honest. There are no speeches or heavy lessons, just a thoughtful prompt, a first step, and a burst of making that turns hesitation into momentum. It captures that moment in childhood when rules about getting things right begin to crowd out play, and it pushes back with encouragement you can use tomorrow morning with a box of felt tips.
Underneath the colour and the jokes sits one idea. Starting matters. A first try can change what a child thinks is possible. The classroom setting, the clear structure, and the light touch make space for that to happen, and the humour helps it stick.
Our verdict:
This is a short book that lingers. A kind prompt and one small action shift a child’s view of what they can do. The teacher shows belief. The child tries, repeats, and improves. The pages chart that growth with an easy rhythm that is perfect for early readers.
It works beautifully in class. Children see that colour mixing, scale, and negative space are all within reach right now. The framed dot is a clever device because it treats the first attempt with respect, and that respect invites effort. Many pupils will recognise themselves in Vashti’s first I can’t and will enjoy replacing it with I’ll try.
Use it as a one-off spark for an art session, or keep it close as a friendly reminder to begin. Either way, it earns its shelf space.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- Start with one: give each child a sticky dot; ask them to build an image around it, sign it, and title it.
- Scale play: make the smallest dot and the largest dot on separate sheets; discuss how size changes impact.
- Invisible dot: create a dot by not making a dot using masking or negative space; talk about seeing what isn’t painted.
- Colour lab: mix two primaries to find as many greens as possible; label each swatch with a name the class invents.
- Pass-it-on: pair pupils; one makes any mark, the other signs it and adds a line about what it could become.
- Resources: Creatrilogy Teachers’ Guide with activities for The Dot, Ish, and Sky Colour. The Dot Activity Kit.
Many thanks to Walker Books for the review copy.
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