This gorgeous and quirky concept book takes compendiums to a new level with a mix of traditional spreads expected in this type of tome ("colourful vehicles","colourful animals") and more unusual concepts such as the wonderful "colourful feelings", which illustrates difficult notions quite effectively, and "colour at night". The endearing recurrent pair of friends brings a consistency that runs throughout the book, allowing it to go beyond the regular concept book and offering opportunities for creating stories, as well as enjoying on one's own. The sturdy pages and Sarah Dyer's hugely child-friendly artwork will ensure this becomes a firm favourite among little people * Library Mice *
It's a book that, like 'The Book of Things' has various small narratives threaded through its 'sorting'-style pages, in which Sarah groups objects and species into colours. It opens with 'Hello colour!', where we're shown what hues are created when colours are blended via the contents of tins of spilt paint and overlapping balloons. There are nice touches, such as a cat stacking blue and red bricks on a yellow mat to introduce the primary spectrum, and when a cat and a dog paint the roofs of their little houses in secondary orange and green, the cat's paw prints trail up the page from its nearby tin of paint. There are colourful vehicles - some of which are true to life (red fire engine, red bus, green tractor, black taxi) and some of which are less obvious (purple cement mixer, pink bike). Everything in the book has the object name written beside it (but not its colour) so it's great for the beginnings of word recognition. My boys' favourite pages are: Colourful animals, where they pointed out that my sometimes-baby would love to the yellow lion, orange tiger and random snorkelling housecat swimming beneath them (she really loves cats big and small). My favourite from this page was the octopus, jellyfish, blue whale and dolphin, all in shades of blues and purples. Colourful food, where my younger one (which some of you may know is a very fussy eater) set about pointing out all the things he likes (chocolate, cake, ice lolly, bread - oh and as a backward glance, carrot and cucumber), and the things he doesn't (broccoli, avocado, fig). Black and white, where the page begins with white things on the left (polar bear, swan, ghost) and moves sideways through grey (rock, spanner, pigeon), and a middle section of black and white (polar bear, zebra, racoon, killer whale ("no mummy, it's an orca")), ending with all-black things (spider, tyre, ant and cat). Colourful feelings - my personal favourite, where cats and dogs enact colour/feeling-related sayings: 'green with envy', 'white with fear', 'purple with anger'. This is a sophisticated view on colour for kids - and I like that some emotions are brought into the book. Just like 'The Book of Things', my boys love 'The Book of Colours', even though in theory it's too young for them. I wonder what age children grow out of point-and-discuss books? I don't really need the answer to that - I just hope it's not any time soon. -- Kate Johnson * Little Lewes *
Gloriously different, from the first page to the last, where black and white combine and where colours depict moods and sensation. Here we even see how differently colours shine at night. -- Justine Crow * Families South East London magazine *
