Color of the Seasons: One Yellow Sun by Michael Arndt

The countdown begins with ten and goes down again as far as it can go, ending with zero, a nice round number. (We'll keep negative numbers for another numerical day!)

First comes a set of ten silvery beads, then nine round rocky pebbles in a conservative gray, and eight equally rounded raisins. (Raisins are more oval shaped, but that's a book for another day.)

Following the sweetness of the raisins, it's please pass the seven green peas! Rolling out next are blueberries, six of them, and yes, they are blue! Then we see five rounded, rollable purple grapes, four pink and spherical, burst-able bubbles, three red bouncy balls, two orange (of course) oranges warmed to summer sweetness by one bright yellow sun, and hiding, somewhere out of that sun... perhaps in Ultima Thule...

Zero snow-white snowballs.

Author-artist Michael Arndt draws upon his graphic imaging chops and a little die-cut, board-book wizardry to make each one of the pages count, in his brand-new One Yellow Sun (M books: see + read) (Andres MCMeal, 2020), with natural colors as seen in something round, in his introductory concept book which covers shapes and colors through the seasons. For the littlest color-lover, this is a tasty combination done with warmth, bright hues, and a surprise on each page as it is turned. A brightly designed "graduation" page for emergent readers takes youngsters up and down again numerically and verbally. Early preschoolers will enjoy guessing what comes next beneath each die-cut color clue, and beginning readers will be able to identify the word for each rounded object. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Simplicity at its finest—-don’t miss this innovative board book that’s as beautiful as it is educational.”

Spring Confections! Colorful Peeps by Andrea Posnen-Sanchez

A sweet treat in colors you can eat!

Or even better, use those bright-colored baby chick confections to teach color recognition.

There are sunny yellow peeps with umbrellas for April showers, and orange peeps in shades of orange juice, peaches and sherbet.

Pink peeps prefer pink cupcakes and balloons, and blue peeps pick blue fish as they float over the blue ocean waves.

Purple peeps arrive with purple presents with purple bows.

Red is the color of favorite playthings--firetrucks, fire plugs, and peeps in red fire helmets.

Green peeps can find green frogs, leaves, hungry caterpillars, and birdhouses.

And after all that, white peeps drop off to sleep in beds with snowy white sheets, counting leaping white sheep!

In Andrea Posnen-Sanchez' Colorful Peeps (Peeps) (Random House, 2018) there's some seasonal fun and concepts to be learned in this Easter board book for the youngest among us.

Follow the Butterflies! Ten Magic Butterflies by Danica McKellar

Once upon a time, there were ten flower friends.

They loved being flowers, but they couldn't deny
that they had a secret desire to fly!

They couldn't help noticing the fairies who flew about their garden, not moored to the ground, but flitting about in the air freely. At last one brave flower, weary with being a stick-in-the-mud, asks a friendly fairy what to do.

"Time to get ready for a big surprise!" said the fairy.

And as fast as she could say BOO, the flower was one butterfly--and she was blue!

And we're off on another of Danica McKellar's board books for toddler mathematicians, a concept book which combines mini-lessons in counting and colors for tots. Little girls in particular love butterflies: they're easy to draw and they come in almost any color available in their crayon boxes, and author McKellar, famous for her advocacy of mathematics for girls, makes good use of this popular image to teach numeration.

With the artwork of Jennifer Bricking, one by one, the flowers magically become butterflies of different colors and fill the air in the garden, in McKellar's third counting book in her board book trilogy, Ten Magic Butterflies (Crown Books, 2018). It's a sunny, funny way to begin math lessons, with a tempting message that mathematics has its own special magic, and kids can count on McKellar to give it wings.

Says Booklist, "A similarly simple, quiet feel as Margaret Wise Brown's iconic Goodnight Moon... there is a lot to count on."

Danica McKellar's earlier best-selling counting books include Bathtime Mathtime and Goodnight, Numbers (see McKellar's math book reviews here)

Concepts A-Board! Numbers Colors Shapes by Roger Priddy

ONE BOAT

TWO RABBITS

THREE BEARS

FOUR DINOSAURS

It's a counting book, counting up to TEN (count 'em) FISH!

But turn the next page and... there are all kinds of colored things! There is an ORANGE carrot and a parrot... and more. And then comes YELLOW ducklings, one banana, and a lemon! And don't forget good old GREEN--leaves, frogs, and grapes. And iconic colors are included: there are PINK flamingos and piglets and BLUE skies and socks!

And then it is time to move on to some basic shapes--squares (like a sandwich) and circles, of course, and then ovals (cf. an egg), stars and diamonds (like a kite).

But there's more than the those standard concepts in Roger Priddy's top-selling padded board book for preschoolers, Numbers Colors Shapes (First 100) (St. Martin's Press/Priddy Books).  Priddy even takes on emotions and feelings, giving a name to youngsters for SAD, HAPPY, HOT,  and COLD .  The author even ventures into concepts such as TIME and PLACE, rounding out this popular concept and vocabulary-building little board book, mixing colorful illustrations and photographs, making this one a concept book that grows from crib to Kindergarten days, especially if bundled with Priddy's hit First 100 companion books, First 100 Words and First 100 Animals.

Caterpillar's Colors: The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Easter Colors by Eric Carle

Little kids are learning all the time, and what time is better than Eastertide for learning the colors? Nature is switching from basic black, gray, and white to a rainbow of colors, and what better teaching experience is there than being immersed in color while dyeing Easter eggs for the Easter basket?

And Eric Carle and his beloved character, that hungry little caterpillar, are the perfect guides, in his board book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Easter Colors (The World of Eric Carle) (Grossett and Dunlap). Famed artist Carle sets the color words on each left-hand page washed with that color and its name in big, block letters, while something of that color is pictured on the facing page. Two little chicks model YELLOW, four new leaves on a twig show off the their new GREEN shapes, and who else but Carle's spotted ladybug could wear RED so well?

There's a PINK flower, a BROWN bird's nest, and a woolly WHITE lamb who get the same double-paged spread, and there's a surprise on the last two pages--a Happy Easter basket showing off all the colors in its bright eggs. This jolly board book is just right for the basket, something that will be around long after the chocolate eggs are nibbled.

You Choose! What's Your Favorite Color? by Eric Carle

If we had to guess Eric Carle's favorite color, we might say GREEN. After all, he's famously done a hungry green caterpillar, a greedy green python, a green elephant, a foolish green tortoise, green dragons, and even a green red fox. But then he's also famously done a brown bear, of course, a black and white panda, a homeless red hermit crab and a grouchy red ladybug, a blue horse, and confused chameleon of many hues. A proponent of strong, assertive colors, Carle has featured most of them in his seventy-plus books.

But in his latest picture book, What's Your Favorite Color? (Henry Holt and Company, 2017) Carle confesses that his favorite color is YELLOW, and backs that assertion up with his trademark yellow sun, indeed appearing in many of his books.

Color is one of the artist's main tools, and in this latest companion book to his What's Your Favorite Animal? (see my 2014 review here), Eric Carle invites fifteen of his famous colleagues to submit their favorite, with a show-and-tell on the features of their chosen color.

Bryan Collier favors BLUE, the blue of the balloons that makes him and his little daughter smile. Anna Dewdney picks PURPLE, the purple of the peacock in her yard and of the pantsuit in her closet. Ettienne Delessert insists on the indigo hue of Tuareg veils in the desert, and Yuyi Morales picks the vibrant Mexican pink of bougainvillea blossoms.

Melissa Sweet counters with the gray of a Maine morning, the gray of fog, seagulls, and granite; while William Low selects BROWN, the color of his own neighborhood. Philip C. Stead's favorite is GREEN, the green of an elephant who just feels like being green one day, and Lauren Castillo loves the WHITE of snow that changes everything to white. Mike Curato picks MINT GREEN because it's the color of his favorite ice cream cone. Frann Preston-Gannon prefers ORANGE, while Jill McElmurray elects BLACK for its unpredictability.  Mark Martin chooses the contrast of CRIMSON RED, the color of a flashy Australian parrot.

The venerable Uri Shulevitz can't seem to choose just one, because, as he says, "a single color may feel lonely."  So ALL COLORS it is!  Carle's endpapers also salute several hues, with simple vertical wide-brush strokes that present stunning paintings on their own.

Carle, the unofficial dean of American picture book artists, has created a book which honors his colleagues and no doubt will have young readers musing about their own favored hues.  This one is a great choice for libraries, for a favorite young artist,  or a favorite art teacher to use with classes. "A creative collection to savor one-on-one or to spark classroom art and writing exercises," suggests School Library Journal's starred review.

BIG & S-H-I-N-Y! Alphaprint Colors by Roger Priddy

YELLOW SLINKY SNAKES SLITHER THROUGH THE YELLOW DIRT.

Most little ones won't see slinky snakes slithering often, but they will remember seeing such a sight, in Roger Priddy's certainly unusual book of colors for tiny tots. With a rainbow caterpillar on the cover, this color concept board book is sturdy enough to teach colors to a sequence of several toddlers.

With a RED fox running, ORANGE apes swinging, and GREEN crocodiles crawling, there are animals and colors to learn to recognize, along with plenty of alliteration to tantalize the ears of kids up to Kindergarten age, in Roger Priddy's Alphaprints: Colors (Priddy Books/St. Martin's Press, 2015),

For a little more whimsy, there are also BLACK whales, purple beetles, PINK pigs, and tactile fingerprint faces to touch and feel, with bright-colored foil thumb tabs to take little ones back to peruse their favorite color pages, too. A super-sturdy board book for every toddler's concept book library!

What Spots? Lucy Ladybug by Sharon King Chai

LUCY LADYBUG DIDN'T FEEL SHE BELONGED ANYWHERE.

"YOU CAN'T BE ONE OF US," CRIED THE OTHER LADYBUGS. "YOU HAVE NO SPOTS."

They're right! She doesn't! Lucy flies away, all alone.

Soon she sees Fred Frog and admires his beautiful green spots.

"YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, TOO," SAYS FRED. "HAVE ONE OF MINE!"

With one green spot, Lucy flies away, feeling better.

Then in the fall she sees Carla Caterpillar and admires her lovely golden spots, and Carla returns the compliment and contributes a gold spot for Lucy's carapace. Lucy loves her twin spots.

But that winter Lucy spots Felicity Fish, leaping from the icy lake and showing off her sparkling blue spots. She cooperates in donating one dazzling blue dot to Lucy's collection.

And when spring has sprung, Lucy can't help but comment on Bella Bird's breast, decorated by dazzling white speckles. Bella obliges by offering Lucy a sample spot!

LUCY LADYBUG WAS SO HAPPY! FOUR SPOTS!

Proudly Lucy spreads her wings and proudly gets ready to come in for a landing at opening day to show off her big bright beautifully colored spots! But... Wait! All the other ladybugs have black spots. Is she still the odd ladybug out?

But in Sharon King Chai's Lucy Ladybug (Random House, 2016), the author-illustrator saves the best for last, a big, bold and bright four-page gatefold in which Lucy Ladybug proudly proclaims...

BEING DIFFERENT IS ACTUALLY ... A GOOD THING!

In a super-sweet story of the virtue of being unique, Chai manages to work in mini-lessons in color recognition, numbers, and the cycle of the seasons, all within an easy-going little parable that salutes individuality along with the value of getting by with a little help from your friends.

Out of the Blue! Blue And Other Colors, with Henri Matisse

GREEN IN THE BACK
GREEN IN THE FRONT,

PURPLE AND BLUE,

AND THERE'S A SPLASH

OF PINK, TOO!

Henri Matisse was near the end of his career, and his hands were less able to paint fine details, he found that he had not lost his desire to make art, and he turned to a new medium, that of cut-paper collage. His sense of color and line and texture were still that of a master, and that period of his work is the stuff of Phaidon Books, new book for the youngest children, Blue and Other Colors: with Henri Matisse (First Concepts With Fine Artists) (Phaidon, 2016).

In this beautiful little board book, Matisse plays with ground, foreground and background, as colors reverse position, and plays withs hape in a way that is intrinsically appealing to the very young, honing their fresh, young eyes and perception with his compositions of color set against bright white backgrounds.

Beginning and ending with blue, but including all the primary and secondary colors as well, this concept book is a brilliant introduction to the use of color in design, color recognition, and the art of composition. The New York Times Review of Books says, "his lovely, well-conceived example seems liable to leave a lasting impression on a little mind,"

I Gotta Be Me! RED: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall

"First to thine own self be true," wrote Shakespeare, and in this colorful tale, "Red" has no choice in that matter. Despite the fact that his Crayola-ish wrapper looks red and clearly says RED, he has a reason to feel blue. He actually IS blue all the way through.

But his perky teacher seems oblivious to the obvious.

"I'LL DRAW RED STRAWBERRIES! THEN YOU CAN DRAW RED STRAWBERRIES!" SHE CHIRPED WITH FEIGNED ENTHUSIASM.

Teacher colors a row of red strawberries, and poor RED tries to do likewise, applying himself and pressing on with the task, but of course all his berries are blue.

Red's mom OLIVE tries to help. She arranges a playdate with little YELLOW, suggesting that they might like to combine their talents by coloring some oranges. Strangely, all of their fruits come out green! His grandparents, SILVER and GRAY, suggest he draw a self-portrait.

BUT IT SO WASN'T RED!

All his classmates are happy to offer their criticisms. Pencil pointedly suggests that RED just isn't sharp enough for the job.

"FRANKLY, I DON'T THINK HE'S TOO BRIGHT!" SAID FUCHSIA.

It seems that all of the crayons can't see beyond his label to the real RED, until he makes a new friend, BERRY, who recognizes his true hue and asks him to color the water for her boat. He even adds a blue whale to his ocean. Suddenly, RED gets it.

"I'M BLUE!"

The sky's the limit, as a whole new world opens up to RED BLUE as everyone sees, really sees, his true color, in Michael Hall's newest hit, Red: A Crayon's Story (HarperCollins, 2015). Preschoolers will have a refresher in color recognition, and older readers will laugh at the clever puns and obtuse color-blindness of all the crayons and perhaps understand the premise of looking beyond social labels to the real person inside. Hall's humorous illustrations of his crayon characters are picture perfect, with grandparents GRAY and SILVER somewhat worn down, and BERRY clearly the sharpest crayon in the box. A not-to-be-missed new classic!

This crayon tale pairs perfectly with last-year's best-seller, Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit (Read my colorful review here.)

Michael Hall is also the author of the cleverest Valentine/color/shape book ever, his heart-y hit, My Heart Is Like a Zoo. (See my heartfelt review here.)

Color Crunch! Mix It Up by Herve' Tullet

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN. ARE YOU READY?

TAP THAT LITTLE GREY SPOT JUST A LITTLE. WHAT HAPPENS?

Herve' Tullet is back with another brain stretching "interactive book," this time devoted to the basics of colors--primary, secondary, and tertiary. With dots of paint so real-looking--wet and shiny--that you expect your finger tip to be colored as you follow the creator's directions,

Tullet takes youngsters through what happens when they combine blobs of blue and yellow and red, producing such realistic results with each page turn that they seem to be occurring for real! Tullet advances through the secondary colors--orange, green, and purple-- and proceeds into mixing in white or black to create hues and shades--white and red becomes pink in a wink of a page turn. Want to see?  OK!

Tullet tells the reader to close the book and smoosh the runny colors on a double page spread, and then tempts speculation as he asks readers to predict what will happen. What happens when you give the book a shake and turn the page? Look and see!

Although this book is aimed toward preschoolers learning the science and art of colors, the faux interactive aspect will have even older kids and adults drawn into the fun, shaking and squishing the book on cue. And it's going to be hard not to break out some paints and play with the knowledge Tullet imparts as soon as he bids readers goodbye.

YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. LOOK! PLAY!

And Mix It Up!  they will, as author-illustrator Herve' Tullet invites them to do in his 2014 innovative virtual art lesson without the mess for Chronicle Books. As he does in his brilliant and best-selling Press Here and Help! We Need a Title! (read reviews here), Tullet joins other author-illustrators, such as Mo Willems, Kathryn Otoshi, Bill Cotter, and Alex Lluch, who have taken on the challenge of electronic storytelling to show that there's a lot of possibilities going on yet between the covers of the classic picture book. "Rivaling an iPad for its sheer fun and interactive elements," is the way School Library Journal describes Tullet's latest in their starred rave review.

Whatchamacallit? I Am Blop! by Herve' Tullet

BLACK BLOP

WHITE BLOP

 !POLB REVOCSID

BLOP is a blob--a four-lobed blob, a shape that can be almost anything the mind can imagine--a flower, a cloud, a butterfly, a Blop family, a classroom of blops in neat rows, what-ever-you-want blops.

Herve' Tullet's latest, I am Blop! (Phaidon, 2013) explores what can be done with a faithful shape like the blop. Blue blop teaches colors with an acetate overlap of yellow which yields a green blop which works both ways, forward and back. Pink and purple overlays play with a touch of red.

There are blops with faces, blops becoming animals, broken blops, measled blops, even invisible blops, blops as famous paintings, blops seen on a mirrored page. There are fill-in-the-blank blops and even punch-out blops that kids can take away to put into their own blop stories.

Herve' Tullet's books play with the very idea of the book, extending the two-dimensional page into the non-dimensional world of the imagination, as he did in in his 2011 best-seller Press Here (see my review here) and his equally imaginative The Book with a Hole. Tullet's little books have broken new ground--genre-breaking, interactive books with deceptively simple art on traditional white pages which nevertheless become interactive when mixed with the imagination of the child.  This one is no exception.

 Publishers Weekly puts in "... even the format is a novelty," and Kirkus Reviews quips "Tullet will intrigue children and encourage them to think outside the blop."

Food Fest: If All the World Were Food by Carl Warner

IF ALL THE WORLD WERE ORANGE,
WE WOULD LIVE IN PUMPKIN HOUSES
WHERE CARROTS, BEANS, AND TANGERINES
FORM TREES AND ROCKS AROUND US.

Only a fantastical, fanatical foodie could conjure up a world composed solely of foodstuffs, in colors for every season and time of year. A world of green? Yes, with trees of curly kale and broccoli, and bridges of carved cucumber.

A world of brown? Well, lots of chocolate for starters!

In a world of silver the sea would be shiny-scaled fish. A world of pink would be a world built of bubble gum, hot pink gummy worms, and jelly beans, and a world of white would be filled with ice cream castles with waffle cone turrets.

With illustrations both realistic and surrealistic, there’s something for every child’s taste in Carl Warner’s imaginative A World of Food: Discover Magical Lands Made of Things You Can Eat! (Abrams, 2012). As in his 2010 Carl Warner's Food Landscapes Warner’s fanciful but meticulous illustrations in a super-saturated palette make for lots of eye-candy appeal, and in this latest, there is a  lot of detail on each color’s double-page spread to make this book an ebullient browse. For classroom food units or just food-fun reading, pair this one with Caldecott artist David Wiesner’s June 29, 1999 or Judi Barrett’s all-time food-fest favorite, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  Publishers Weekly puts in a plug: "A delightful supplement that should be browsed at leisure."

What's What? Tell Me about Colors, Shapes, and Opposites by Aurelie Guillerey

WHERE ARE YOU HIDING?

Where can that tricky cat be?

Is he below the bed, on top of the cabinet, or on the bottom? How about beside the chair? Actually, keen observers can point him out, just sneaking out the door of the kids’ bedroom. Did he turn left or right? Is he inside the house or outside? Is he behind the rug on the clothesline? In front? One sharp-eyed tot is pointing up, up to the spot, where a turn of the page shows him in the tree, “Up there!”

With the cat and a curious bird leading the way, the kids go on to more complex concepts, not just size, but–thin, thick, long, twisted, straight–as they help clean up the fallen sticks under the tree, where the cat is still hiding–in their tree house!

From there, the cat takes the kids on to the fun of colors–black, grey, white-- on the street as they make their way to the open air market where they find all sorts of colors in flowers, fruits, and vegetables, and the companionable cat keeps up the pace until they’ve seen them all..

Back at home, it’s time for quiet crafts. The cat curls up in a round ball for a cat nap, modeling the first of the shapes–the circle--followed by the rest of the usual suspects–rectangle, square, triangle.  Kids settle down with their art supplies and cutout shapes and encounter a few other concepts as well–dots, loops checks, stripes, and spots. as they construct pictures from the patchwork pieces.

Now it’s time for a party, and the black cat is on it in a flash as preparations begin. One girl,  alone, works the phones calling up guests, and soon they are all together for the festivities. A line dance is followed by swinging your partner two by two in a do-si-do. And then it’s time for the refreshments–a whole birthday cake, a slice, a section, or a piece! Candy? Many? A few? None at all?

What about going on a little day trip? (The little black cat opts to stay at home when the family heads for the beach. All that water? Ne-ow!)  But the kids are up for sand castling from morning till evening! Their sand sculpture is seen in progress–before and during--the construction process, and sadly after a wave retakes their sand castle.

At last it’s time for good-bye to the beach and hello to home, where you-know-who is waiting for them on their doorstep!

A charming little black cat is the guide, putting tots through their paces in Delphine Badreddine’s Tell Me About Colors, Shapes, and Opposites (Owl Kids Press, 2012) which offers plenty of opportunities for more than vocabulary building in the lively activities illustrated by Aurelie Guillerey,with chances for questions and predicting what will come next. This is a dandy concept book which help teach those important language-linking words, and with their friendly feline guide, kids will want to see what that little black cat is up to next.

Color It.... Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

These are the golden days of the picture book.

Arguably the oldest of human literary forms (remember those cave paintings), the art of creating a seamless merging of thought, word, and image has come to a flowering in book design which almost transcends the ancient format of bound pages. Such a book is Caldecott winner Laura Vaccaro Seeger's Green (Roaring Brook, 2012).

Closed, its cover is an unprepossessing but sturdy green square with three abstact leaf shapes on a darker green background and the title in pale and plain lower-case letters. But under that cover each page explores a facet of the color green with an intriguing die-cut circle which leads the eye into a surprising change of scene on the next page. "Forest green" on the first double-page spread reveals a window of color which fits into its design of a deep forest and yet leads to the next page, "sea green," in which the revealed area appears as the pattern of a sea turtle's shell as he swims in a turquoise sea among darker kelp. That page has an integral opening which leads to "lime green," the pale and subtle green of the cut fruit's flesh, and that page's opening leads to "pea green," a spoonful of peas, each its own shade of green.

Vaccaro continues her exploration of the color, with art and wit. The "slow green" of a caterpillar gives way to the "glow green" of fluorescent fireflies chased by children in a summer's twilight, the red barn beside them giving way to the red of apples in an "apple red" tree. There are surprises, too, with the "wacky green" of the word "zebra" seen through the die-cut opening and disappearing into the design of the following page and the "never green" of a red and white stop sign, and the "no green" of that same barn white with snow. And at last there is a promise--"forever green" as a boy plants a seed by a green cheese moon, which finally opens to a sun lighting a seedling with its own new and hopeful green of spring.

With its inviting page texture and that intriguing circular die cut on each layout, this book is a feast for the senses--begging to be seen, to be touched, and to be voiced.

As in her earlier books, First the Egg (Caldecott Honor Book and Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book (Awards)), The Hidden Alphabet, One Boy, and Dog and Bear (Neal Porter Books) (Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner-Best Picture Book) (Awards)), Seeger continues to create books that are benchmarks in the art of the picture book, one with layers of sense and meaning offering much to readers of almost any age.

The New York Times reviewer says that Green is "…one of those deceptively simple picture books that to the casual bookstore browser can seem to be about nothing much at all. But the reader who settles down and slowly pages through its gorgeous acrylic paintings or, better yet, reads it aloud to a young child, will find rich rewards."