Love Sees With New Eyes

The first things we see when we step outside each morning are a multitude of elements composing one unique scene next to or layered on another scene.  These visuals are full of shifting colors, lights and darks and blends of various hues.  If we are able to dim our other senses momentarily we can see harmony in these presentations, regardless of the season or setting. 

There is unity between the colors as they work together complementing each other.  MIXED: A Colorful Story (Henry Holt and Company, July 3, 2018) written and illustrated by Arree Chung celebrates this cooperation and respect.  It's a call for us to step beyond the realm of color and recognize differences, similarities and the beautiful found in each individual.

In the beginning, there were three colors.

There were Yellows, Reds and Blues, each with their prevalent characteristics.  They worked and played together in a single city.  One day, a grumpy Red declared

REDS are the BEST!

The Yellows were not happy about this, challenging this announcement with one of their own.  The Blues felt this entire discussion was beneath them and remained quiet.  Before too long, the three groups decided it was best to live in three cities instead of one.

Later a Yellow was out and about one day and spotted a Blue seated on a bench.  The attraction was instant and mutual.  Of course, other Yellows, Reds and Blues were not happy about this relationship but that did not bother this Yellow and that Blue.  They felt nothing but love and married.

Their new baby was named Green.  She had the best parts of Blue and Yellow in her but also was her own singular self.  This little miracle got the attention of other Yellows, Blues and Reds (even the grumpy one).  Her existence gave others permission to see new choices and make changes.  She was hope.


Using a mix of narrative and dialogue Arree Chung tells an important and timely tale.  His short declarative sentences give readers a clear sense of reality in the world of the three original colors focusing on their strengths.  It is one of those unique abilities found in the one Yellow which bridges the resulting divide.  In the conversational asides Arree supplies common arguments which readers realize have no value when stacked against love and acceptance.  Here is a passage.

But then, one day, a Yellow noticed a Blue

And something happened.

I feel so
happy
when I'm 
near you!

And I feel so
calm when
I'm with you!


Placing the beginning central characters, a Red, a Yellow and a Blue on the crisp white background brings our attention to the individual facial features, body postures and added details in black highlighted here.  We know by these three individuals something big is going to happen inside this book especially when we look to the title and see the result of combining red and yellow and yellow and blue. To the left, on the back, four other titles by Arree Chung are showcased beneath a group of colorful characters.  The main title text and the three characters are varnished and raised.

On the book case smiling circular faces in all sizes look at readers.  They are a blend of the primary colors in all the resulting hues.  The opening and closing endpapers are rows of smiling faces, the first in the primary colors and the second a replication of the book case.

Using liberal amounts of white space Arree Chung is able to create a focus on his characters.  All the details on each of them, their hats, scarves, sunglasses and glasses, and additional elements like a microphone and a car are done in black and white.  This minimalist approach is highly effective.

The black lines are bold creating realistic cityscapes. They become thicker in times of crisis or during strong moods and moments such as the closing image.  When the emotional content is lighter, the lines are finer.  The use of visuals in varying sizes provides a wonderful pacing from small pictures surrounded by white to full, two-page pictures powerful in their depictions.

One of my many favorite pictures is after the birth of Green.  She is shown in three separate images on a single page.  In the first she is doing a happy dance because she is

bright like Yellow.

In the second she is leaning against a pillow reading a book because she is

calm like Blue.

In the final scene she is framed by flowers (in black and white) as she stands in a garden.  She is holding a tiny shovel and wearing an over-sized straw hat.  A basket is placed next to her.  A teeny ladybug crawls along the ground.  She is joyfully waving at us.


If asked to give a single word to the result of reading MIXED: A Colorful Story written and illustrated by Arree Chung, it would be uplifting. It is indeed a book about colors but it is much more.  It's about us and the ability to see beyond color.  We are shown how individual qualities can build bridges and break down walls.  It's about honoring singularities and generating one city for all.

To learn more about Arree Chung and his other work please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  I believe you will enjoy reading past posts on his blog.  Arree maintains Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts.  At the publisher's website you can view interior illustrations.  There is also an activity guide.  On June 12, 2018 Arree visited the Children's Book Podcast #443 to chat about this title.  Arree is featured on BookPage in an Icebreaker article.  Here is a link to Arree's YouTube channel where you can view two videos (trailers) for this book.

Seasonal Views And Hues

This year in the northern hemisphere on September 22 summer will come to a close.  The daylight hours are already shortening but during those minutes the world around us is bursting with color in every hue imaginable.  The blend of shadow and the height of the sun give us breathtaking beauty.

We wake to filtered sunrise rays peeking through trees, bushes and flowers giving them a golden glow.  Cloud cover alters every instance.  Wind works a special wonder.  Summer Color! (Little, Brown And Company, May 15, 2018) written by Diana Murray with illustrations by Zoe Persico takes us on a tour of a summer day shared by siblings and their family.

The hot summer sun lights the sky like a torch
as folks fan themselves on the shady back porch.

With this opening sentence we see the first hue of the day---yellow.  It shines on the sunflowers.  As parents and cousins join the duo ice cold sweet treats on a stick are shared.  Their vibrancy shines with a primary color.

Brother and sister run fast past familiar places until they realize the day has darkened.  Clouds swell turning a stormy gray.  All the animals in the field hurry toward the safety of the green woods.  As the rain falls everything starts to shimmer.  Brights are brighter.

The companions traverse farther into the forest, seeking a cool sheet of white water tumbling to a pond.  Making their way home past the lake with people seeking shelter beneath blankets of purple and past meadow mice tucked in their cozy abode, they run to their door.

Soaked through and through, they cuddle under the warmth of orange towels noticing the color of the fence and shed in their backyard.  As suddenly as it arrived, the disturbance disappears.  The leftover droplets cast a silvery sheen.  The children run outside looking at the clear blue of the sky only to find an arching surprise.


Listening and reading children alike will find themselves caught in the cadence of the words written by Diana Murray.  Twelve vivid hues are spotlighted in rhyming couplets (and other poetic techniques such as alliteration), each focusing on an action; everything and everyone is in motion.  Diana Murray's descriptions of place and time entice us to recall similar experiences or to create new adventures in the near future.  Here are two couplets.

Splashing and splattering, streak after streak,
the rain soaks the earth and sweeps over the creek,
where frogs start to croak and the water snakes slink,
and wildflowers glisten with petals so pink.


Using an F & G (looking forward to having my own copy of the book), the dust jacket unfolds to display a green hill topped with the children's home, a field of flowers spreads from flap edge to flap edge.  The blue summer sky holds places for fluffy white clouds, the warm yellow sun and a cardinal gliding on the breeze in the far left upper corner.  On the opening and closing endpapers a fun-filled meadow scene is shown. (In the back these endpapers also display the dedication and publication information.)

A fox calmly watches eleven white mice and nine blue-green frogs frolic on and off the pages.  Eight snails slide across the right corner.  A variety of flowers and mushrooms grow in clusters.  Two of those snails move across a meadow with brown farm fencing on the two-page picture for the title page.  In each corner we are given a close-up view of flowers.

Rendered by Zoe Persico using traditional-art-inspired digital brushes and media the illustrations radiate from every page, blissfully conveying the magic of a summer day.  Each two-page picture feels as though it's in motion, frozen only for a moment until we can jump in and join the characters.  The facial features on the humans are those of contentment and happiness.  Even in the animals there is a sense of harmony.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a close-up of the children running from stone to stone across the creek as the rain begins in earnest.  They are moving from left to right on the left side.  All we can see are their sneakers, legs, a pair of shorts, a skirt and the bottom portion of their shirts.  The girl's hands and arms move in motion with her legs.  Pink land and water flowers dot the image.  A snake glides toward the left side of the page.  A brilliant green frog watches from a rock on the right.  We can see the rain drops streaking downward.


You'll want to use this title, Summer Color! written by Diana Murray with illustrations by Zoe Persico, for your seasonal story times as a charming introduction to all that can be seen in a single summer day. It can also be used with a unit on weather and for any theme involving the concept of color.  Children (and children at heart) will be attracted to the gentle but energetic beat of the words and the spirited illustrations.  It would be wonderful to have this title on your professional and personal bookshelves.

To learn more about Diana Murray and Zoe Persico and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Both Diana and Zoe are on Twitter. Diana has an account on Pinterest.  Zoe has Tumblr pages and an Instagram account.  Both of them are interviewed by writer and illustrator Jena Benton about this book on her blog.  Enjoy the trailer.

Like A Butterfly

When you work with younger children, sometimes you feel as though you are in the presence of those with the attention spans of fleas.  It's like it's non-existent.  Experience and those very same children will teach you, it's not about having an attention span of a particular length but about greeting the world with infinite curiosity.  They don't want to miss a single thing so they move from thought to thought and place to place like a butterfly in a flower garden.

A single word in a discussion with a child will trigger another concept seemingly different but somehow connected.  Holding this child wonder of discovery in our minds even into adulthood can make all the difference.  Living near the shores of Lake Michigan teaches you the color of the water changes daily.  Two days ago, the blue was brilliant.  Yesterday the water looked like it was dusted with a glowing white due to the air conditions and angle of the sun.  Color is constantly changing.  In her first picture book, Caldecott Honor winner Jillian Tamaki addresses how one child views the color in her world.  They Say Blue (Abrams Books for Young Readers, March 13, 2018) is a joyful journey you will want to take repeatedly.

They say blue is the
color of the sky.

A young girl sitting on the sand at a beach has to agree with this statement.  The sea is blue today, too.  It is not blue when she scoops it up in her hands.  As she plays and drifts in the water she wonders about the color of a blue whale.  It's hard to know what is true and what is not true if you've never seen something with your own eyes.

With the lightning leap a child's thought process can make she acknowledges her belief in the hue of an egg yolk and the blood coursing through her veins.  In a wondrous shift of imagination she sees golden grasses as waves upon which a lighter than light boat can float.  The gray of a storm washes away those thoughts.

A small bit of color in the rainy gloom of the day has her pausing in her walk home from school.  With this tiny announcement she's certain the seasons are changing; the colors are altering too.  Running outside she becomes a part of the natural world.

In her newly acquired shape she enjoys summer, autumn and winter.  The calm of winter with the world at rest brings her home to sleep.  She's still noticing the colors in her immediate surroundings and outside her bedroom window.  It's a new day with new opportunities to embrace.

When you read this narrative you can easily see Jillian Tamaki has retained the child wonder of discovery.  Her sentences reflect the thoughts, movements and imagination of this little girl perfectly.  The depiction of how color is perceived is remarkably accurate allowing her audience to easily connect to the child with great understanding.  Here are two sentences.

But when I hold the
water in my hands, it's
as clear as glass.

I toss it up in
the air to make
diamonds.


In a marvelous display the scene on the front of the dust jacket of the child, a young girl, moving her balance from foot to foot, stretching to reach the whirl of black crows extends with excellence over the spine to the left, on the back, and to the edge of each flap.  The texture of the swirling blue, golden yellow and hints of purple look like marble.  With little effort you can hear the crows calling to each other or inviting the girl to join them.  Her black hair is lifted like their wings.

On the book case you might gasp at the blend of black crows and white sea gulls amid shades of blue, orange, red and a tiny bit of purple.  The color frames the flight of the birds. The opening endpapers are concentric bands of yellow and orange.  At the back on the closing endpapers the center point shifts as does the color.  These colors continue on the page turn opposite the title page in the beginning and opposite the verso with a final illustration at the end.

Jillian Tamaki begins at the beach, moves masterfully to a school yard, a ride home on the bus, a rain storm and then a powerful imaginative journey before returning the child to her bedroom.  The illustrations she creates using a combination of acrylic paint on watercolor paper and Photoshop are unique to this specific girl but also universal to many of us.  There is a special quality to her technique.  Even in stillness we feel the movement of life and its inhabitants.

One of my many favorite illustrations extends over two pages as almost all of them do.  The girl at the beach, wearing a red, one piece bathing suit, steps into the water, hands together and cupped to look at the water she holds. From there she leans down and moves forward swimming before she leaps into the air. She splashes water in great arcs around her.  Her head is lifted and her mouth is open in sheer happiness.  (How many times have you done this? Or how many times have you seen children doing this?)


Like the girl in They Say Blue written and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, your spirit will soar as she comes to one realization after another.  By the time you close the cover the same happiness she feels will fill you completely.  As a story time read aloud or a one-on-one bedtime choice this book will prompt wonderful discussions about color and point of view.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Jillian Tamaki and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Jillian maintains an Instagram account.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher, reveals the cover and has a chat with Jillian on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.  Editor Roger Sutton talks with Jillian about this title at The Horn Book.  Author, reviewer and blogger, Julie Danielson features this book on her blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast following a post at Kirkus.

All The Colors In-Between

No matter the amount of planning given to a story time for the youngest of gals and guys, it is always infinitely better than imagined.  Their responses are genuine and straight from the heart using all their senses without reservation.  The spontaneity of these children is a never-ending source of delight.

For them the world, even on a cloudy day, is bright with possibilities.  Black Bird Yellow Sun (Candlewick Press, March 6, 2018) written and illustrated by Steve Light invites us to take an avian day trip.  We perch, glide and walk from one colorful experience to the next.

Basking in the golden glow of a sun, black bird contemplates his next stop.  Sharing the tree branch with him is a tiny orange worm.  An array of leaves, a lighter shade of the worm's color, provides a canopy from the heat of the day.

Plucking ripe fruit from hanging bunches supplies noontime nourishment.  A stroll through green grass gives Black Bird's wings a rest.  It's time for an afternoon snooze.  A fright causes him to take flight.

Large rounded gray rocks signal a pause.  On the next stop a hue envelopes this bird in calm.  His creeping companion finds solace on another bloom.  After the sun sets and night cloaks the world in darkness, a special moon casts a blue light.  Sweet dreams Black Bird and orange worm.


Throughout the day and into the night Steve Light moves this bird and this worm from one vibrant space to another.  At each place readers learn a color and an object; totaling eight colors and eight objects.  Both the primary and secondary colors are included.  The repetition of Black Bird prior to the color and named item gives readers and listeners a cadence which welcomes participation and without a doubt finger snapping, hand clapping and toe tapping.


This sturdy board book when opened reveals to the left, on the back, eight circles of color on white, four above and below these words:

From morning's yellow sun
to evening's blue moon,
Black Bird discovers 
the colors of the day.

The textures as shown on the front of the case cover are sure to have readers ready to reach out and touch the book.  Steve Light uses a technique not seen in his earlier books for these illustrations.

By employing collage and by printing cardboard shapes with ink he creates images ideal for younger readers.  With this simplicity in the color palette and design the little gals and guys are able to focus on the black bird, the worm, the colors and elements in each scene.  Steve Light alternates the side of the double-page pictures on which the bird and worm appear enhancing the pacing and guiding our eyes.

The shapes used for the black bird are graceful, particularly when the bird is flying.  The worm is always in motion, inching along branches, leaves, fruit, blades of grass, the ground, a rock or flower.  Readers will look to the bird's eyes to determine where its attention is directed at a particular place.

One of several favorite illustrations is when Black Bird is flying toward the cover of the orange leaves.  His body with wings outstretched is placed over the word bird on the left.  Large orange leaves, some with veins branching out from a center line, cover the top of the page on the left and nearly every space on the right.  This is a wonderful study in perspective.  Near the top-left of the right side, the worm crawls along the edge of a leaf.


Whether read one-on-one or shared with a group, Black Bird Yellow Sun written and illustrated by Steve Light is a gem to enjoy.  Certainly there will be multiple requests for read it again.  With each repeated reading the listeners' knowledge of the colors, named items, Black Bird and his worm buddy will grow. I believe this title will pair well with Lunch written and illustrated by Denise Fleming.

To discover more about Steve Light and his other work, please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  At the publishers' websites here and here you can view interior images.  At Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read., Steve Light premiered the book trailer.  Besides introducing the book to us, he gives a wonderful account of how he made his art for this book.  In an earlier post Steve Light visits with John Schumacher about his other books and artwork on August 18, 2017.

Freedom To Be Wild

As an educator you are entirely focused with heart, soul and mind every single day of the school year.  You are also thinking at the same time of the next year; how you can do things better and what you will need to do to be better.  By the time your classroom is closed for the summer, you are up to your eyebrows in plans for the upcoming year.

While not a top priority but still necessary is gathering materials for all your hands-on projects.  Elementary students really enjoy using crayons.  A huge bag, growing bigger by the year, with well-loved stubs of color is a testament to this fact.  They love being the first one to open a new box of crayons with sharp points and the cardboard stiff from the lack of being used.  (I have to admit to feeling the same way.)

It's as if you are opening a door to a world full of possibilities.  As teachers and parents know, a blank surface is an invitation to a child with a box of crayons.  SWATCH: The Girl Who Loved Color (Balzar + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, March 15, 2016) written and illustrated by Julia Denos is about a girl who embraces the various hues she sees everywhere every single day.

In a place where colors ran wild, 
there lived a girl who was wilder still.

This wilder-than-colors-wild girl was called Swatch.  In this place she was known as a color tamer.  Although it could be said she was a mere pixie in size, she could mingle among colors making them do her bidding.

She learned to persevere in pursuit of a particular shade.  No nook or cranny was safe from her careful eye.  No color was too small or too large to escape her attention.

She would call colors to her and they willingly came.  Swatch and colors had great respect and affection for each other.  One day, for no special reason, she beckoned a color to her, placed it in a jar and asked it to remain.  It did.

To keep it company she began collecting a wide assortment of colors in containers.  Her room looked like a swirling rainbow.  She still had one final brilliant hue to gather to the group.

This radiant rambunctious color had other notions.  Swatch's senses were elevated to new glorious heights.  To be wild is to be free.  To be free is to be wild.  In this freedom and wildness wonders are wrought.


When you look about your world, inside and outside, the range of colors is determined by many factors which seem to fluctuate from moment to moment.  Julia Denos depicts this spontaneity in her opening sentence.  Her descriptions of Swatch, the colors (and their names) and their relationship make us feel as though the two are parts of a glorious whole.  When additional dialogue is introduced into the story their connection becomes more personal for us and for Swatch.  Our understanding grows along with her understanding.  Here is a sample passage.

Swatch had never thought of capturing a color until
the day she lured Just-Laid Blue straight from its
nest and into a jam jar.
"Stay," Swatch said,
and the color stayed.
How beautiful it looked behind glass!
"You could use a friend," she said to Blue.


The swirl of blue and pink on the back of the matching dust jacket and book case moves to cross the spine joined by a flurry of fluttering butterflies on the back and the front.  Like a magician with a wand Swatch has gathered colors to her to weave a spell of beauty.  Her skip of joy and happy expression announce her passion for her work.  On the opening and closing endpapers Julia Denos has painted a background of the blue on the first and the pink on the second. The verso and title pages are a spectacular wave of pink which Swatch is riding like a surfer.  Portions of the natural world appear beneath the mass of color; trees and flowers.

Rendered in watercolor, pen and ink and pencil with Adobe Photoshop the illustrations dance with high energy spanning two pages for most of them; some on single pages.  There is motion in each image.  A flawless flow connects the colors to Swatch and she to them.

The body postures on Swatch convey her lively soul.  Her hair, clothing, paint spattered face, body and clothing and facial features enrich our knowledge of who this color tamer truly is. Viewing her in various perspectives, close to us and farther away, complements the pacing.

One of my favorite of many images is the two pages showing her capturing Blue in the jar.  Blue leaves frame the entire picture.  In the lower left-hand corner is a large nest holding three eggs.  From that to the right are two branches of the tree.  On one branch, on her hands and knees, Swatch is holding the jar as blue swoops inside.  Above her on the other branch is her cat leaning over to touch the blue with a paw.  They both have a circle of blue around one of their eyes.


As you read the final text and illustration, whether it's the first time or the tenth, you feel your entire being uplifted like a symphony building and reaching a crescendo.  SWATCH: The Girl Who Loved Color written and illustrated by Julia Denos is a hoopla of happiness.  This has a party within its pages to commemorate the delight of discovery.

To learn more about Julia Denos and her other work please follow the links attached to her name to access her website and her blog.  You can read a sample from the book by going to the publisher's website. The Scholastic Ambassador for School Libraries, John Schumacher, has Julia Denos on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read., for a guest post and book trailer reveal.  Julia Denos chats with teacher librarian Matthew Winner at All The Wonders, Episode 256. Sturdy For Common Things highlights this title and includes face painting.

You can follow Julia Denos on Twitter at @JuliaDraw and on Instagram 

From Mystery To Marvelous

Shortly after 12:30 this morning Xena and I stepped outside for our final stroll before bedtime.  Unlike during the day when breezes are steady, not a leaf stirred.  Temperatures and humidity had dropped bringing clarity to the air.  A half-moon was framed in the sky by birch tree branches now black.  The few stars not affected by the light of the moon were as bright as ripe berries waiting to be plucked.  The rest of the neighborhood was quiet.  We were two lone observers.

During such unexpected moments as these it's easy to believe you are someplace entirely different than you are during the morning, afternoon and early evening.  The Night World (Little, Brown and Company, June 16, 2015) written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein follows a cat and her boy on an excursion.  Nothing is the same.

"Good night, Sylvie."

A cat sits on her boy's bedspread gazing out the window as stars begin to appear in the sky. The yard is still filled with light from the setting sun.  Sometime later the boy is awakened from a sound sleep by a questioning call from his cat.  The boy does not know the hour but the cat cries to go outside.

She leads them both through the darkened house; the rest of the family, even the dog and parrot, eyes closed, are at rest.   As they make their way downstairs the boy looks in wonder around the rooms.  It looks so strange at night.

Urging him to hurry, the two go into the yard.  Everything is cloaked in shadows.  The boy guesses at the identity of the shapes he sees.  Anticipation fills the boy's senses.

Nocturnal creatures begin to cautiously make their way toward the cat and her boy.  They whisper words brimming with expectation.  Something is coming.

First one bird, then another and then an entire chorus announce an arrival.  Sylvia asks her boy to look.  And then he sees it.  His animal companions slip away.  Through its radiance a new world comes into focus.


I imagine the first sentence will be spoken in a whisper.  With those words Mordicai Gerstein lifts a blanket called hush over us all.  As it settles easily around us we feel the gentle warmth and curious awe the world of night brings.  Using a blend of first person narrative with conversation, Gerstein involves us intimately with the story.  We are tiptoeing right along with Sylvie and her boy.  Here is another sample passage.

That shadow is a deer.
Is this one a rabbit?
A porcupine looks up and
whispers, "It's almost here."


Rendered in acrylics, pen and ink and colored pencil on Strathmore gray Artagain paper the softly-textured illustrations are a sensory joy.  The inky black fabric on the front and the back of the dust jacket extend to the flaps where outlines of the boy, Sylvie and a bird are highlighted.  We want to stand with the cat and boy at the window peering into the star-studded night.  On the back, to the left, some of the animals, an owl, a bear, a porcupine, a rabbit, a skunk and a deer, are placed on the outside of the window frame.  They too are watching the sky.

For the book case Mordicai Gerstein places Sylvie and her boy outside surrounded by a swirl of stars.  It's like they are standing in the Milky Way.  They are looking up into the night.  The opening and closing endpapers are filled with the dark and stars.  With the first page turn the boy speaks the first sentence.  There is still enough light outside and inside to see color.  For the verso and title page, the boy is deep asleep.  It is now completely dark.

Before Sylvie and the boy leave the house the illustrations are framed with about two inches of a gray shade regardless if they are single or double-page images.  Gerstein shapes them geometrically, usually narrower at one end of the rectangle.  The first two-page visual, edge to edge, is when they are in the yard together.

It is followed by nine more stunning portrayals of night gradually easing into the light of a glorious new day.  The eyes on each living being convey the peaceful quiet of every moment and their mood.  Gerstein's lines flow masterfully from one element to the next.

All of these illustrations are superb.  One of my favorite ones is when the animals gather around the boy and Sylvie.  They are all looking intently in the same direction, waiting.  (I can already see readers and listeners pointing to each one and naming them.)  Stars dazzle through the trees.  The house sits in the background, all the windows dark.


The Night World written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein is breathtaking in its recognition of a night wrapped in beauty, of the nocturnal creatures and the simple gratitude of greeting a sunrise.  Moving slowing from the absence of color to the glow of a full spectrum we appreciate the gift Sylvie has given to her boy.  Please share this book as often as you can.  I know you will be asked to read it more than once.  In an author's note at the end, Gerstein speaks about what prompted the creation of this book.


Mordicai Gerstein has been interviewed at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Massachusetts School Library Association, and Barefoot Books, Living Barefoot Blog.  For the pronunciation of his name please visit TeachingBooks.net.  UPDATE:  There is loads of artwork at Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast on July 12, 2015.

This book is so spectacular I am giving away a copy.  Good luck to you all.

On The Inside

Labels are helpful when wanting to know the ingredients in a particular food product, how often to take a specific medicine, or the needed number of applications for a foolproof fertilizer for the lawn and garden.  These labels are designed to inform and protect. When labels are given to people rather than things their value diminishes.

Even if the label for someone is good, it might tend to stop us from truly knowing them.  If we are told over and over we are one thing, it might be hard to uncover who we are and how best to use our gifts.  Red: A Crayon's Story (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, February 3, 2015) written and illustrated by Michael Hall follows a crayon's journey to self-discovery.

He was red

So says pencil, chief narrator of this tale.  For reasons obvious to the reader or listener Red lacks the ability to be as the paper wrap suggests he should be.  Everything he draws is blue.

His teacher believes practice is the answer.  His strawberries look like weird-shaped blueberries.  His mother tries her best by encouraging Red to mix with others like Yellow.  She is hoping to see a nice orange orange.  It's not quite ripe yet.

Silver and Gray, Red's grandparents, make him a gift of a scarf to ward off the chill they are certain he is feeling.  It's going to take more than apparel to make this crayon red.  It seems every crayon in the box has an opinion but nothing seems to work.  Even when other members of the art table, tape, scissors and a sharpener, get involved the result is the same.  What Red reads is not what Red sees.

But...on a very special day, a day Red will always remember, a new pal in the pack, Berry, asks Red to color the ocean beneath the boat.  Red denies he can do it because he is red after all but with Berry's encouragement Red draws wavy water.  And it's blue.  And it's easy for Red to do!

Red can't stop now; everything he creates is correctly colored.  Pencil and the box crowd change their words as fast as a finger snap.  His teacher finally understands uttering a prophetic truth.


With those first three words Michael Hall captures our undivided attention; conflicting with the image seen, a bright blue crayon wrapped in a Red crayon label.  With nearly all the narrative phrases he includes comments from another crayon or group of crayons adding an emotional layer to his story.  These candid observations readily define their personalities.  Here is a sample combination.

His mother thought he needed
to mix with other colors.

Why don't
you two
go out
and draw
a nice,
round
orange.

A really
big one. (Yellow)

A really
orange
one! (Red)


Opening the dust jacket of the F & G the solid blue on the front carries across to the left and extends into each flap.  The comments of the orange and yellow crayons at the bottom on the front announce the contrast between the color and the color tag.  On the back the berry and purple crayons make comments foreshadowing the story's outcome.  The blue used in Red on the front is used again on the title page.  A stark white background provides a canvas for the pencil's words

As told by me!

 written in gray on black paper taped to the page.  In the lower left corner a portion of scissors can be seen near scraps of black paper.  This is clearly a story told by items of interest to artists.

The illustrations are placed on either a black or white background with lots of empty space drawing readers' eyes toward the individual elements and the text.  All drawings made by Red, Scarlet, Yellow, the other students in class, and Berry look as if they have been drawn using crayons.  Simple but purposeful in layout, the perspective does not shift except at the explicit turning point.

One of my favorite illustrations is for the phrase

But he didn't catch on.

Green draws a

Green frog!

Black draws a

Black sheep!

 Brown draws a

Brown cow! 

Red draws an ant that is blue.  For his text we read...

Red...
aaack!


If you've ever felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, Red:  A Crayon's Story written and illustrated by Michael Hall is a perfect pick.  It's a story highlighting the journey necessary to find your true self.  It's about that one person who might help you make the discovery.  This is a story when shared will be appreciated by any age.  Wonderful!

If you are interested in learning about Michael Hall and his other work please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  This link takes you to the book trailer reveal by author, New York Public Library's Youth Materials Collection Specialist and blogger at A Fuse #8 Production, Elizabeth Bird.  Here is a link to 7 Reasons Why Your Child's Bookshelf Needs RED courtesy of the publisher.  My posts for his other titles, Perfect Square and It's An Orange Aardvark can be read by following the links.  

Primary, Secondary And A Little Bit More...Get Out The Paint!

Yesterday the color of Lake Michigan spanning outward from the shoreline between Charlevoix and Petoskey was stunning.  The combination of bright sunlight, clarity of air and cloudless sky created a shade of blue hard to name.  It was worthy of stopping the car, watching the waves and soaking up the beauty.

I wondered at the time how to duplicate the precise quality of the lake without the benefit of a camera.  Even then, would a photograph be the same?  It reminded me of my first watercolor set; of adding liquid to those solid squares of color to make paint and new hues.  As a concept book for younger readers Herve Tullet's new title, Mix it Up! (Handprint Books, an imprint of Chronicle Books LLC) pictures the excitement of making vibrant art.

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN.
ARE YOU READY?

Reading the second sentence you will notice the previously blank page now has a small gray blob of paint in the center.  On the fourth page you are asked to, ever so lightly, tap the dot and observe.  Now it looks as if finger-made spots of blue, yellow and red (and isn't that pink?) are racing toward the tiny gray dot.

There don't seem to be enough so we are urged to tap and tap some more.  Wow!  Immediately there are lots of dots; red dots, blue dots, yellow dots, green dots, purple dots, orange dots and pink dots.  The gray dot has plenty of company.  Are we done?  Oh...no...we are just getting started.

We are requested to place our hand on top of all those colors.  With a page turn we see the outline of a hand nearly absent of any red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange or pink.

YES! YOU'VE GOT THE MAGIC TOUCH!

Using our fingers we smear primary colors with one another making green, purple and orange.  We slide our book one way and then another, we press and rub, forming blended swirls, drips, splashes and smudges of secondary shades.  Is the fun over?  Oh...no...we are questioned to see what we've learned.

What will white do?  What will black do?  What will they do together? Our hands, at the invitation of the narrator find answers and...the enchantment of blending color.


This book is like holding an art lesson in your hands.  Herve Tullet is speaking to each individual reader in the simplest manner while encouraging participation.  In presenting the role of primary and secondary colors and using white and black to lesson or intensify each, we learn by doing.  You know it's not real but it feels real.  Anticipation builds with each suggestion and the following results.  Here is a small sample of a conversation.  The first phrase is beneath a smudge of red, yellow and blue.  The second is under a large irregular dot on the following page.  On the third page the original three dots are pictured with no text.  A green dot with a little blue and a little yellow peeking out from the edges is above the final questioned word.

WITH ONE FINGER TAKE A LITTLE BIT OF THE BLUE...
AND TOUCH THE YELLOW.  RUB IT...GENTLY...
SEE?


Of course paint was used to render all the illustrations in this book.  The high sheen to the paper gives realistic texture to every single color.  It makes following the narrator's instructions even more fun.  You expect to feel paint on the page and on your fingers.  Both the opening and closing endpapers are rows of thumbprint colors.  We begin without a title page, verso or dedication.  Herve Tullet knows his audience; he understands their eagerness to make art.

Each illustration is exactly as you would expect it to be if you had made it yourself within the last few seconds.  Each time I turned a page I could not help but think how much fun Tullet must have had making this book.  The shaken pages have marbleized color.  The tilted pages have color runs.  Squished pages have splatters radiantly spreading to the edges.   This illustrator is truly gifted at enhancing simple ideas to foster learning.

I think one of my favorite illustrations is toward the beginning.  The outline of the hand among all the colored thumbprints truly visualizes the power of creation.  It announces the start of a whole new world.


It's a good thing heavier paper is used for the pages in Mix it Up! written and illustrated by Herve Tullet. Readers, young and old alike, are going to be tapping, rubbing, smudging, tilting, shaking, and squishing to their hearts' content and then starting all over to do it again.  Keep paints and extra copies at the ready.  And like Herve Tullet states at the end

HAVE FUN!

Please visit Herve Tullet's website by following the link embedded in his name.  Here is an earlier interview about his work and the title, Doodle Cook, at Design Mom.  The publisher has made an activity kit.  Enjoy the book trailer below.

Colorful Creativity

Have you ever heard something wondering what it could be?  From wondering your mind goes to possibilities.  If the noise is repeated possibilities leap to certainty.  This conviction as to the source can trigger emotional responses; laughter, happiness, unease, fear, sadness, astonishment, or inquisitiveness.

There is great power in imagination.  It's an Orange Aardvark! (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) written and illustrated by Michael Hall chronicles five carpenter ants who are trying to determine the cause of a singular sound.  Among the quintet opinions range from positive to negative and everything in-between.

Boom! Rumble, rumble.
Did you hear that?
What was it?
Uh-oh...
Yawn.
Huh?

Following this speculation the silence is broken.  One of the more adventurous ants is making a hole in their home, a stump.  The need to see outside is strong; curiosity is not going to kill this cat...er...ant.

Several of the other residents give replies in support of his endeavor.  One does not.  This particular ant is the exact opposite of the window maker.  This particular ant is certain an aardvark is lurking outside ready to gobble them up as an entree.  The three, who earlier liked the idea of an exterior view, switch sides backing the prophet of doom.

When the luminous color of orange gleams through the opening, the naysayer is positive it's an aardvark.  With sure knowledge he proclaims

Aardvarks turn orange when they're hungry for ants, you know.

Not to be deterred in his quest, the industrious insect constructs another cranny.

Into this latest peephole a brilliant blue fills the space.  You-know-who has an answer ready; still convinced an aardvark is watching and waiting.  In his description not only does the aardvark alter skin tones when desiring dinner but wears bedtime attire at the same time.

As the bold bug continues boring through the wood, six holes expose six different hues.  The contrary character never shifts his opinion as each shade shines; not even when the four discover the radiant truth.  Who knew aardvarks like grape juice?


Lively language forms a rhythm at each page turn.  Michael Hall assigns responses to each of his animated ants; one likens the colors to another thing, another gives one word descriptive reactions, a third keeps adding shades to his answers as the fourth envisions their worst nightmare.  Repetition of three exclamations after each gloomy guess, adds to the participatory fun of this cumulative tale.  Here is one passage.

Thunk!
Ah! It's orange and blue.
Blue like the ocean.
Cool!
Oh no, no!
It's worse than I thought.
It's an orange aardvark and ...


The entertainment begins when readers first glance at the matching dust jacket and book case.  Michael Hall's bold palette, not to mention the orange aardvark, is certainly eye-catching.  On the back the insects wearing construction hats feature the trio of repeaters along with the spunky craftsman.  Compiled digitally using acrylic-painted textures and torn paper, the illustrations begin the story four pages prior to the title page.

Each time a hole is made in the text, a hole appears on the page aligned with a new color.  The personalities of each ant pop off the page as their eyes, mouths and legs change.  Readers will be unable to contain their laughter as the persistent pessimist adds to his perception of the perceived adversary outside.  Hall's layout and design with his combined colors are marvelous.

One of my favorite illustrations is the two-page spread of five colors revealed.  Four ants are on the left with four holes cut away.  The productive ant is on the right amid five circles of shaded color with five holes.  Even with the one ant beginning his warning, this page is filled with exuberance.  You can feel something good is about to happen.


Cheerful and charming, It's an Orange Aardvark! written and illustrated by Michael Hall is one of those books that are pure delight from cover to cover.  I can already imagine reading it aloud speaking in a particular voice for each ant.  I can already hear listeners requesting it again and again.  I can already picture early readers sharing it with younger friends and siblings.  This book is a treasure.

Please follow this link embedded in Michael Hall's name above to visit his official website.

Colorful Complaints

Among all the papers, embellishments, ribbons, letters, pencils, pens, stamps and doodads I use for making my own greeting cards, is an unused box of 96 crayons. When I open the lid the smell is laden with decades of memories of many other boxes of crayons used with pleasure.  The colors, lined up at attention in rows, are a rainbow of possibilities.

Any size box of crayons offers endless potential for recreating what we see, doodling or filling in the spaces in our favorite coloring books. In my kindergarten years I never drew a picture without a rainbow tucked in somewhere.  To this day I have to stop to look whenever I see one stretched across the sky reminding me they are like opening a box of crayons.

You have to appreciate an author who imagines how the crayons in a box might feel about their individual treatment. The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.) by Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers finds twelve crayons in a bit of a dither.  In fact they are so upset they decide to take matters into their own... er...hands.

One day in class, Duncan went
to take out his crayons and found
a stack of letters with his name
on them.

To his surprise (I'm sure), the letters were from his crayons.  The first to air his frustrations is the color red, believing he works harder than the others.  He's absolutely pooped from all the pressure of his efforts on holidays.  No other color is used in the creation of the red-suited guy at Christmas or in all those hearts on Valentine's Day.

Who knew a crayon would nitpick about someone staying within the lines?  Not calling a color by its proper name can send them into a deep depression.  Not using them enough makes a bad situation even worse.

Gray is ever hopeful for smaller subjects to color; he finds whales, elephants and hippos exhausting.  Grumbling with just cause, white and black make solid points; why is the one rarely seen and the other usually seen as a line of varying widths.  One of the calmer, cool as a cucumber crayons, has a concern about two others bickering about the color of the sun.  Needless to say they both have written to Duncan, stating their claims in no uncertain terms.

Being a favorite color is no fun either.  You end up being rather diminished in the height department.  And what about the color that would never be used if it wasn't for Duncan's sister?  Where is Duncan's freedom of expression?  Clever and kindhearted guy that he is, Duncan's resolution is picture perfect but tape or glue might have been needed to fix peach's problem.


Lucky for we readers, it would appear Drew Daywalt has the very special gift of being able to speak and understand "crayon".  Every thought expressed by each of these colors is exactly what we might expect them to say.  Their range of emotional unhappiness or contentedness, in the case of green, is precisely and concisely stated.

It's the word choices, the emphasis, which will make readers laugh.  Even though the crayons are not pleased with Duncan each signs their letter as your _____ friend or your _____ pal.  Here are a couple of sentences from one of the letters.  Can you guess the color?

I'm not even in the rainbow.
I'm only used to color
SNOW or to fill in empty
space between other things.
And it leaves me feeling...
...well...empty.  We need
to talk.


You know you're in for some great artwork with liberal amounts of humorous touches when you read this in the publication information.

The art for this book was made with...um...crayons.

Fully animated, disgruntled, sign-carrying crayons on pieces of lined composition paper displayed across the matching, front and back, jacket and cover give a clear indication of events to come.  Miniature crayons patterned on the opening and closing endpapers continue the theme as does the title page; a single box of crayons closed with several signs lying near, one reading

We're not happy

Each of the letters is depicted on the left-hand side of a two page spread written in the correct color of the crayon having their say.  Different shaped, different styles of, paper provide the backdrop for the letters. If you were looking inside a student's desk at school, this is the kind of paper you might find there.

The childlike drawings on the right-hand side along with the cranky crayons are flawless, lively.  I can't help but wonder if the coloring book pages are real or from the hand of  Oliver Jeffers; the illustrations for this title couldn't be better.  It's a draw as to whether the red pages or the gray pages are my favorite.


I've been saving the reading of The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers for the perfect day.  Yesterday was that day.  I knew it was going to be good but I had no idea how truly playful it would be.  I've read it over and over to myself and aloud.  Voices for each of the colors make it even better.

Please follow the link embedded in Oliver Jeffers name to access his personal website.  This is a link to the International Reading Association site containing an article, Putting Books to Work: Daywalt and Jeffers' THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT   In case you have not seen the video about Oliver Jeffers yet, I've included it below.