One of the best things of a coloring book is that you can use whatever color you want for any part of the picture. You can make the sky yellow or purple. You can make a tree pink. Your creativity can go wherever you want it to go. Today I'm going to share a book about an illustrator who went a bit crazy. The book is True Colors by Gonçalo Viana. It is recommended for ages 4 to 9.
From the Publisher:
A green cloud and a white tree? Who is responsible for illustrating this book? True Colors begins innocently with two friends, their dog, and their kite, but each time the story gets started, more colors seem to go awry. The narrator implores the reader to help as townspeople, a group of scientists, and the town tailor all try to determine what is going wrong. As the characters engage in comical attempts to reverse the colors, the two friends show us that colors can do all sorts of amazing tricks—with a little imagination. Gonçalo Viana's bold, retro illustration style brings joy and laughter to all shapes, sizes, and colors.
From Me:
My first thought of this book is it is a bit crazy, but as I got to thinking about it I realized it has so many ways to have different conversations including ones with STEM indications. It also is a book that would be fun to read aloud--especially to a group of kids.
When the narrator realizes the issues the story talks about the problems and discuss changing the colors back to what they should be.
However the book gets even more mixed up and the colors of all sorts of things change.
This book reminds me of The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak, which is a hysterical book to read to a group of kids. I know Hazel use to love it around kindergarten age. This book seems like it would be the same.
I love the solutions that the book comes up with. The illustrator makes problems but call the tailor to fix them. Plus many of the houses have eyes and the world gets crazier and crazier.
Besides being a fun book for reading aloud, I think it would be great to turn the book into a discussion of creativity when coloring but also the science of why some of the things in our world are the colors they are.
Creative Activity:
Have the kids draw a picture of a tree, sun, and dog and make them whatever color they would like. Or have them color a page like this one whatever colors they want. Then talk to each child about their color choices.
Scientific Questions to Ask:
Why are trees (leaves) green? The simple answer is chlorophyll. For more detail check out here.
Why are clouds white? The simple answer is the white is caused by the sunlight hitting the water. For more details check out here.
Why are dogs brown, black, etc.? There are two basic pigments that determine the color of a dog. For more details check out here.
Why is the sun yellow (orange or red)? The short answer is that the Earth's atmosphere disperses out the blue, green, violet (short wavelengths) so only the yellow, orange and red waves make it to us. For more details check out here.
The science behind some of these may be above the children's levels but you can simplify it for them and turn this book into a science lesson. Have fun with this book!
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