Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
These Colors Are Bananas
Board Book
For ages 3 to 5
Phaidon Press, 2018 ISBN: 978-0714876603
We humans like to pigeonhole things. Doing so helps us to bring order into our lives, and lets us label things so that we feel comfortable with them. For example, we like to think that an apple is red. It is a red fruit and that is how it is supposed to be. The truth of that matter is that apples can be red, it is true, but they can also be green, or pink, or even a bright yellow.
Similarly we think of eggs as being brown or white, but the eggs of emus are a dark green color, and robins lay eggs that a pretty sky blue.
In this clever little book the authors use simple statements and color palettes to challenge young readers to think outside of the pigeonhole. Among other things, children are encouraged to consider that clouds are often red or purple, that dogs come in all kinds of colors, and that frozen water can be blue, grey, or some combination of both of these colors. Children will end up discovering that the colors around them are richer and more unpredictable than they thought. They will see for themselves that observing the world with an open mind is exciting and full of possibilities.
