Review Detail

Color Makes the World Go Round

Kids Fiction 74

What's YOUR favorite color?

September 02, 2024

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

A little girl LOVES color, and is dismayed when she thinks about a world in black and white. We see good examples of this; we see a full color page on the left, but a black and white page on the right, often continuations of the color picture. This gives us a black and white pot of gold at the end of a gray toned rainbow, as well as a zebra that isn't the best example! The little girl is determined that everything should be colorful so brings in a magic act and instructs the readers to close their eyes, repeat after her, tap on the book and turn the page... which of course is rendered in glorious color.

Good Points

As someone whose love of color was probably fostered by Brown and the Provensen's The Color Kittens (it's the only one of my childhood Little Golden Books that had the cover completely fall off!), I am all for having lots of color in the world. Painting an entire floor of a house the same gray? Bah! Wearing only the colors of pond scum? Ridiculous! Color may not exactly make the world go round, but it certainly makes it a happier and more interesting place.

The change between color and black and white illustrations is cleverly done, and will make an impression on younger readers who are not used to seeing picture books in black and white.

This would make a great gift for a young color enthusiast, along with a fresh pack of 96 crayons, or even better, the super large pack of 120 caryons! I wouldn't have known what to do with myself! Keep it on your palette along with other books celebrating the wonderful world of color like Elliott and Turk's Color the Sky, Reiss' Colors, Daywalt and Jeffers' The Crayon's Book of Colors, and Austin's Monsters Love Colors.