Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff (Beach Lane Books, 2012) is a different kind of colors book, and one of my favorites this week. It approaches color-learning from a new direction, much like Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? or The Black Book of Colors approach colors from a different perspective.
Baby Bear Sees Blue has a gentle story about a bear awaking from his dark cave for the first time. As he experiences things for the first time (the sun, a waving leaf, a sweet smelling strawberry, a fluttering orange butterfly) he sees the colors for the first time. All the while, Baby Bear relies on his mother to help him figure out the new world: the jumping brown fish, the scary gray stormy sky, and ultimately, the sweet beauty of a rainbow after the storm.
The illustrations are block printings with hand-colored watercolor. I’m sure they were made with painstaking care and yet the end result is gorgeous, gentle, and deceptively simple. The sweet story, the bright colors, and the careful design make this book an elegant, lovely one for children of all ages.
Kid’s thoughts: “I liked it.”
Nominations for the Cybils are open! As a first-round panelist, I get to read all the nominated fiction picture books, those published between October 16, 2011 and October 15, 2012. My son (turning 5 tomorrow!) and I enjoy watching nominations come in, and we’re always excited when we see a book we’ve already enjoyed show up on the list! Some he’s really excited to read because the title is so interesting or the cover illustrations are intriguing. We read this book earlier in the year but didn’t have a chance to post about it then.
