Colorful books 📚

February is a lot of people’s least favorite month. Even though it’s short it feels long. Part of that is that it usually is gray and rainy and dull. One way to avoid the February doldrums is to read some colorful books with your kids. These books are guaranteed to brighten even the greyest day. 

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh is a fabulous classic for preschoolers. Three little mice stumble on some paint and have fun seeing what colors they can make. It’s great for the very young who are learning colors. 

Another classic preschool book for learning colors and shapes is Lois Ehlert’s Color Zoo. Ehlert ingeniously uses shapes and die-cut pages to form different animals in this very simple board book. 

Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a great book for kids around three who delight in saying no to everything and who are learning their colors. “Lemons are red.” NO! 

On the other hand, White is for Blueberry by George Shannon is a wonderful book for kids who know their colors already and can understand the concept that sometimes blueberries aren’t blue…they are white if they aren’t ripe yet. Crows are pink…if they are newborns. 

Red is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong and Grace Lin is another good introduction to colors but from the perspective of a young Chinese girl who sees the colors in the items in her family’s life. 

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt is a hilarious book for elementary aged kids. A boy’s crayons have decided to run away and have each written their owner, Duncan, a letter explaining why. Blue is just tired from having to do so much work. Orange and yellow are in an argument over the true color of the sun. Pink wants to be used more often. If your kids like this one, you are in luck…there are a whole bunch more Crayon books to look forward to. 

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle is about a child who paints animals the “wrong color”. Inspired in part by the first time Carle saw the painting The Blue Horse by Franz Marc, this is an ode to creativity and is a great book for budding artists. 

Sky Color by Peter Reynolds is another ode to creativity. Marisol is supposed to paint the sky for a mural but has no blue paint. After really looking at the sky and thinking about the colors she sees, Marisol knows how to solve her problem. 

Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman is a book of poems that look at colors in different ways. It’s a wonderful way to introduce poems to kids, through a concept they already know. 

Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville is the biography of one of the first women hired by Walt Disney who was known for her unconventional use of color.

Crayon Man by Natascha Biebow is another fascinating biography that looks at a little known figure, Edwin Binney who invented the first wax crayons.