A University associate professor is being recognized for his children’s book titled Chalk. Bill Thomson’s book is being honored on the 2011 notable book list by ASLC. Each year a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in children’s books. Chalk is a wordless picture book that depicts a story of children’s adventure with Chalk.

Thomson talks about the idea of the bokk came about;”Chalk originally was a rejected idea of something else, was doing an illustration for a brochure for the Connecticut children’s medical center. The liked one of my brochure ideas and another idea that I had was a picture of a kid drawing butterflies and the butterflies coming to life.”

Thomson specializes in children books Chalk was his first written and published book. A constant theme in Thompson’s books is the portal of diverse groups of children ethnically and gender wise, he hopes that all readers can relate to a character. Thompson books are highly realistic illustrations based on real experiences and children, even his son Ethan makes an appearance in his books. Thompson is in the process of working on two more wordless follow up books.