Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Colors of Nature
Illustrator: Paolo Domeniconi
Board Book
For infants to children age 4
Creative Editions, 2017 ISBN: 978-1568462998
Every season offers up a rich palette of colors that delights the eye. Though these palettes contain all kinds of shades and hues, often a few colors seem to dominate. For example, in spring green is everywhere as “shoots and buds” open, unfurl, and fill our view with the promise of new beginnings. Spring is also a time when pink and purple flowers bloom.
Summer is a time when blue “shines and sparkles,” and when white “clouds drift into shade.” In fall red is everywhere, blazing on trees and on the ground where fallen leaves gather. Orange too dominates until winter drifts in with its greys that freeze.
What is wonderful about this book is the way in which the illustrator takes the image-rich, lyrical, minimal text and adds his magical interpretation, taking a little boy into a world where (among other things) he climbs vines of flowers, rides on the back of a swimming fish, sits on a pumpkin the size of a car, and lives in a house almost completely buried by red fall leaves.
Little children will never know what is coming next in their seasonal journey through this book, and they will enjoy looking for the little boy’s comical feline companion, who is always with him.
