The Girl Who Heard Colors by Marie Harris, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Nancy Paulsen, 2013) focuses on the extra-sensory condition called synesthesia, in which various senses are enriched by colors. I do not have this condition myself, so it has always fascinated me. In this story, a young girl hears colors.
Her story focuses on her experience in her daily elementary school class, where she eventually admits to her classmate that the noise she heard was “yellow” and that the cacophony of a student playing instruments is too many colors all at once, so she cannot enjoy it.
She meets an adult with her condition, and I love how she and her classmates come to terms with her strange extra sense. The illustrations are playful but appropriately full of the colors of the rainbow, making this a visual delight to read as well.
