64. Yellow LIke a Submarine, Purple Like the Rain

Board book: Yellow Like a Submarine, Purple Like the Rain: A Rocking Book of Colors. Duopress Labs. Art by John Coulter. 2022. April. 20 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Yellow like a submarine, purple like the rain...
...the world is full of colors rocking all around.

Premise/plot: This is a rock-inspired color concept books for music loving parents (and grandparents) to share with the little ones in their lives. It is a board book. The colors introduced are red, blue, black, white, silver, green, yellow,  and pink. Rainbows are also celebrated with a nod to neglected colors like orange and purple. 

Here is how red is introduced:

Red is for 99 Red Balloons soaring over Strawberry Fields on a Ruby Tuesday.

My thoughts: I liked this color concept board book. It does list the songs and artists mentioned throughout the book. Definitely this list is more for adults (obviously). While parents may choose this board book because of the "rock" theme, little ones can enjoy the hands-on experience of lap-time of read aloud time. 

Part of me is annoyed (slightly) that there is no author listed. It is never a good sign when publishers are like, well, the author just doesn't matter--no credit needs to be given. That being said, the book is bright and colorful. The text is more than adequate for teaching colors. Some spreads have a better rhythmic flow--I love the red example--than others. But overall, I definitely liked it.

 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers

55. Night Train, Night Train

Night Train, Night Train. Robert Burleigh. Illustrated by Wendell Minor. 2018. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Train ride! Bump-bump. Chug-chug. Slow. Faster. Faster. Off we go.

Premise/plot: A little boy goes on a train ride...at night. This picture book is told in rhyming verse.

My thoughts: I love, love, love, love, love the illustrations. I do. But I--as an adult who isn't particularly a train enthusiast--was disappointed with the rhythm and rhyme of the text. I guess part of me was hoping it would be more like Freight Train...only at night. This one does focus on colors--gray, black, red, blue, white, orange, purple, green, yellow.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10 

 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers

56. Colors: My First Pop-Up

Board book: Colors My First Pop Up. Matthew Reinhart. Art by Ekaterina Trukhan. 2021. [May] 12 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: My favorite color is red. It's ladybugs and cherries, lobsters and berries. 

Premise/plot: What do you need to know about this one? It's a concept board book--the concept being colors. It's for toddlers who are careful with books or preschoolers who don't mind revisiting colors. It has some pop-ups thought not for each spread. There are some additional interactions--tabs to pull, flaps to lift, etc. The text is simple and predictable.

My thoughts: To be honest, I felt that some of the features were a little too hard to manipulate properly. I get the idea that things weren't moving as smoothly as they should to get the full effect of the illustrations. In particular I had a horrible time with the duck pop-up. And the frog pop-up was difficult as well. Though to be fair, once I did eventually get the frog to jump out of the log, it stayed unstuck. Maybe I just didn't work hard enough to get the ducks swimming properly.

I think this one should probably be a supervised activity unless you just don't care how long the book lasts. But the book retails at close to $15 so I'm just not sure why you would buy the book (at least full price) if your little one tends to be rough at handling books. I think there are probably better books if you're looking just for a good, solid books about colors. 

© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Board book: Little Book About Colors

A Little Book About Colors (Leo Lionni's Friends). Leo Lionni. Jan Gerardi. 2019. Random House. 28 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Red a bright red balloon

Premise/plot: This board book is inspired by the work of Leo Lionni. As far as I can tell, Lionni did not actually write or illustrate any of the book. It is a concept book teaching colors. It stars Lionni's mice.

My thoughts: I liked this one fine. I think my favorite was GRAY. The accompanying sentence was just one little word: ME! There are only three marks of punctuation in the entire book--two exclamation points and one period. Part of me is annoyed that this board book lacks proper sentences. (I don't think little ones will care about that.)

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 7 out of 10

© 2019 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Board book: Bow-Wow's Colorful Life

Bow-Wow's Colorful Life. Mark Newgarden. Illustrated by Megan Montague Cash. 2009. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 18 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Red! Orange! Yellow! Green!

Premise/plot: Bow-Wow is the star of a board book series. Each board book "teaches" a concept. This one teaches colors. Bow-Wow is tugging the socks off his human. It's a silly, super-simple story that I found delightful.

My thoughts: I think this one is my favorite Bow-Wow story. I love the ending. It's predictable--since Bow-Wow is a dog--but fun too.

Have you read the Bow-Wow series? Which one is your favorite?  

© 2018 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Who Eats Orange?

Who Eats Orange. Dianne White. Illustrated by Robin Page. 2018. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Who eats orange? Bunnies in their hutches do. Chickens in the henhouse too. Who else eats orange? Goats. Pigs. Gorillas too. Gorillas? No! Gorillas don't eat orange. They eat...

Premise/plot: This nonfiction concept book focuses on the colors various animals eat.

My thoughts: I picked this one up because of the awesome cover. It said--to me--READ ME, READ ME. I had high expectations because of the cover. The book didn't meet those high expectations, but that says more about me than the book itself. If you choose a book based solely on a cover without reading any reviews, then that's a risk you take--being disappointed.

So this one goes through a rainbow of colors. White chooses a few animals to highlight per color. My slight issue with the book--again this says more about me--is that animals rarely eat just one color. So while bunnies do eat orange carrots--they eat plenty of other vegetables that are not orange. You could just as easily list them under green. I read the notes on each animal, and more often than not, the animals eat a rainbow of colors. It just seems arbitrary to me to assign one color per animal.

Text: 2 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out 5
Total: 6 out of 10

© 2018 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Board book: Anne's Colors

Anne's Colors. Kelly Hill. 2018. 20 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Orange braids/ white blossoms/ black hair/ pink cheeks

Premise/plot: This color concept book is inspired by L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. It stars Anne, Matthew, Marilla, Diana, and Gilbert. Each spread just has two words. Yet the illustrations capture moments from the novel quite well--all things considered. (I mean two words are TWO words.)

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. I wanted to find a kindred spirit in this one. And I did--mostly. But I think it would be better if the colors were arranged differently. The current presentation is sequential--for the most part--except for one spread. They end the book dramatically with GREEN GABLES. Anne is bringing a bouquet of flowers to Marilla AND Matthew. I can see why--for the drama--they'd want to end with that. But. It would have been truer to the book if they'd ended with Anne and Gilbert's PURPLE TWILIGHT. So my preferred order: orange, white, green, black, pink, red, blue, brown, yellow, purple.

The illustrations are PRECIOUS.

© 2018 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Guess How Much I Love You All Year Round

Guess How Much I Love You: All Year Round: Four Seasons, Four Stories. Sam McBratney. Illustrated by Anita Jeram. 2010. Candlewick. 72 pages.

Guess How Much I Love You All Year Round collects four previously published stories: Let's Play in the Snow, When I'm Big, Colors Everywhere, and A Surprise for the Nutbrown Hares.

Each story stars--of course--Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare. Each story is set in a different season: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Each story focuses on learning, growing, and being a part of the world around them. There's a focus on nature, for example, that just feels right. Like the original story, these stories are a bit wordy--very dialogue heavy. But, for the most part, I enjoyed this one. In some ways, I liked these stories more than the original.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

I Like Fruit

I Like Fruit. Lorena Siminovich. 2010. July 2010. Candlewick. 10 pages.

I enjoyed Lorena Siminovich's I Like Bugs. But I loved, loved, loved her I Like Fruit. Like I Like Bugs, this one is a touch-and-feel book. It offers readers a variety of textures. And it's very bright, very colorful. This book introduces colors to young ones by using fruit. For the color red, we have a strawberry, a raspberry, and cherries.


Green brings us an apple, a kiwi, and some grapes.

My favorite texture would have to be the pear or the orange.

I loved the design of this one. I do. I love the textures. The colors. The arrangement of all the different elements. It's a beautiful book. There is just something so pleasing, so appealing about it. It just works really, really well.

Definitely recommended!

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

Little Scholastic: Zoo

Little Scholastic: Zoo. Illustrated by Salina Yoon. 2010. [January 2010] Scholastic. 10 pages.

The lion is....orange.

Zoo is one of the latest titles in Scholastic's Little Scholastic series of board books for the very youngest of readers. (This one is for 1 to 3 year olds.) The book serves as an introduction (of sorts) to colors and animals. It's a simple concept book.

This one is flexible, in a way, because it has pull-out pieces parents which parents can then use as color flashcards or as puzzle pieces. (Combine all four flashcards and you'll create the colorful peacock.)

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

Bow-Wow's Colorful Life

Newgarden, Mark & Megan Montague Cash. 2009. Bow-Wow's Colorful Life. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Learn your colors by reading Bow-Wow's Colorful Life. Bow-Wow stars in many board books. Many of these books are charming and delightful. Simple, yes. But satisfying none the less. They're very well suited for the youngest of readers. They're simple. They're fun. And they don't require much of an attention span. Bow-Wow's Colorful Life is a charming addition to the series. Take my word on it. It had me at hello. On the title page, we see Bow-Wow intently looking-and-sniffing at a foot. We then see Bow-Wow 'learning' his colors as he removes sock after sock after sock after sock. The ending is pure delight.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

Little Green Books: My First Garden

My First Garden is part of Little Simon's Little Green Books series of environmental and eco-friendly books for kids. The book itself is made from 100% recycled material. It's a concept book--a book teaching children about colors. We've got green cabbage, purple turnips, orange carrots, yellow squash, red tomatoes, etc. What do we have after a day in the garden with mom? The makings of 'tasty' vegetable soup*.

This is neither here nor there in a book review. But cabbage and turnips will never be tasty in my book! Green zucchini, that would be tasty. Or green broccoli. How about brown mushrooms, and white onions?

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

Froggy Green

Walker, Anna. 2009. Froggy Green. Kane/Miller. (Pub. March 2009) (Originally published in Australia).

"Froggy Green" is a Toddler Tale--a book that isn't quite a board book, yet not a picture book either. (It's sturdier than the traditional picture book. Yet more-grown-up than a board book.) This book is all about colors. Everyone seems to have a favorite color. (Of course, it may be a different favorite color next week, or next month...but) Each of the kids in Froggy Green has a favorite color: fireman red, fairy pink, sunshine yellow, monster purple. But the kids all have at least one thing in common. Can you guess what it is? I scream, you scream, we all scream for....

This one is a nice and fun book.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers