Pistes d'exploration

Choose one colour and make up new descriptions for it. Connect the colours with emotions where possible.

Create your own version of the book, following the author's style. Include any colours you wish.

Explore the names of coloured pencils or paint swatches. Make class posters to display the many variations of colour.

Explore the names of coloured pencils or paint swatches. Make class posters to display the many variations of colour.

Listen to the story without looking at the pictures. Use a colour chart/wheel and point to the colours as they are mentioned. Do you agree with the author’s point of view of each colour?

Create a bookmark in the same style, choosing colours that you like.

My Blue Is Happy, The Black Book of Colors

Mots-clés

Picture book , colours , descriptions , discovery , elephants , figurative language

Commentaire descriptif

Quirky and delightful cartoon-style drawings illustrate this book about colour. For readers who’ve gone beyond the basic 6, 8, or 12 colours of their crayon sets—this book has a colour for them! As much about exploring language as it is about colour, this is evident from the start, when Pomelo engages with many aspects of white: “the silent white of the blank page,” “the infinite white of winter,” “the foamy white of hot milk.” Rich language generates new and different variations for every colour. The illustrations are funny, cute and stylish, all at once. Pencil, coloured pencil and watercolours are the low-tech effects that make the book’s abstract language visible. For “the dismal green of doubt,” tiny Pomelo rests on the stalk of a green leek, concerned by a murky green puddle below. When he lands nose first among pebbles, readers understand “the dangerous gray of stones.” By the end of this rainbow book, readers will agree with Pomelo that it’s a joy to be “. . . one of the colors of our beautiful multicolored world.”