Nonfiction Monday: A Book About Color

A Book About Color. Mark Gonyea. 2010. Henry Holt. 96 pages.

Chapter One: Welcome to the Neighborhood
This is Color Street.
On Color Street, the houses are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Red, yellow, and blue are called primary colors. 
Let's make those houses bigger.
You can use the three primary colors to make more colors.
Red and yellow make orange.
Yellow and blue make green.
Blue and red make purple. 
Orange, green, and purple are secondary colors because they're made with primary colors.


I have really enjoyed Mark Gonyea's previous books about design: A Book About Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good and Another Book About Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Bad. These books are very reader-friendly, yet informative. Anyone interested in art--in design--no matter your medium or format--can benefit from reading these books.

The first chapter introduces readers to primary and secondary colors.

The second chapter discusses how different colors can represent different things. ("Red is loving. Red is dangerous.")

The third chapter discusses the concept of warm and cool colors.

The fourth chapter discusses the colors in relationship with one another. (Complementary colors, and analogous colors).

The fifth chapter discusses shades and values of color. In other words saturation and desaturation. ("Saturation is the amount of color in...well...color.") This is also where he discusses the "colors" black and white and shows how they can change the value in other colors--making things lighter or darker.

The sixth chapter presents the concept of the color wheel.

I liked this one. I would definitely recommend it along with his previous books to anyone interested in art and design.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers