His home and his neighborhood became anything from a faraway planet to a prehistoric jungle. As a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, Wiesner re-created his world daily in his imagination. Perhaps it was this decor which awakened his creativity and gave it the dreamlike, imaginative quality so often found in his work. With his attention to detail and trained eye, Wiesner continues to reinvent himself every book and especially telling the story without words.During David Wiesner's formative years, the last images he saw before closing his eyes at night were the books, rockets, elephant heads, clocks, and magnifying glasses that decorated the wallpaper of his room. He is very interested in metamorphoses and loves to see how one object can transform into another. Wiesner continues to publish and work on this wordless picture books. When writing Three Pigs, Weisner wanted to make sure his readers had fun when reading the book, and despite the rigid format of the picture book, he wanted to make sure readers didn't just see one approach of story telling but understood that there an infinite number of approaches. He tells a story and a tale about where the camera has been but we never know any more than necessary to understand and appreciate the story. Wiesner tells an immensely detailed story just using images. From lens-eye to fish-eye, readers see a 'frame by frame narrative of lush marine escapes ebbing and flowing from the real to surreal(Johnson, 2009)'. Like in Flotsam, Wiesner's most recent Caldecott winner, published in 2007, Wiesner gives a young boy and the reader a surprising view of fantastical images from the bottom of the sea. Wiesner has an unusual perspective and cinematic effects that characterize his work. Wienser creates fantastical worlds and setting that take the reader through a journey. Wiesner soon discovered after he began school that picture books were the 'perfect vehicle for his work'.

Wiesner is educated in art and was able to find the perfect outlet to explore his passion for visual storytelling by being the innovator in the field of wordless picture books.

He is only one of two people to ever win the Cadlecott Medal for three separate books, all written and illustrated by himself and has also won two Caldecott Honors. David Wiesner has illustrated more than twenty award winning books for young readers.

David wiesner wordless books