Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--3--This book successfully brings together two complementary ideas. First, readers learn how the sun's white light is separated into different color wavelengths. These wavelengths either "sink into" or "bounce off" objects to create the colors we see. Second, readers are introduced to the varied colors that can be seen in nature and learn fascinating facts about the stunning colorful world of animals, plants, and natural features such as rivers, clouds, stars, and planets. As a result, information about color is joined with an impressive array of fascinating illustrations and text. The text both informs and surprises. For example, a spread entitled "Wonderful white" shows illustrations and descriptions of white plants, animals, clouds, and sand dunes. Readers also learn that polar bears may look white, but their skin is actually black, and their white hair is hollow and full of air. The illustrations also delight. A section entitled "Gorgeous green" includes illustrations of animals, such as a green-blooded skink, a sloth, a green iguana, and a green bee-eater, which is actually a bird. Readers learn the surprising fact that green algae grows on a sloth's damp fur and serves to camouflage it from predators lurking in trees. VERDICT This book is a fine choice for supplementing and supporting studies of plants, animals, and natural settings. It is also useful for examining how written text and illustrations can work successfully together to inform and surprise readers.--Myra Zarnowski
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A celebration of select colors in the visible spectrum, plus black and white. While Barr writes that "our world spins in color," she sidesteps the issue of just how many colors we can see (current estimates range up to 10 million). The author presents examples of flora, fauna, rocks, and more that flash hues or blends of various colors, including pink, gray, and brown, plus all colors ("wonderful white") and none ("deep black"). She rhapsodizes about the "brilliant blue" of the sky, lapis lazuli, and peacock tarantulas and explains how the color results from the selective reflection and absorption of spectra. She also invites readers to join her in marveling that white "is bursting with secret colors," that the blood of certain skinks is actually green (and that of icefish totally colorless), and that rainbows are round when viewed from the right vantage point. She extends her topic in multiple directions, with glances at iridescence, bioluminescence, and the effects of climate change on wildfires and other ominous events, from earlier-blooming cherry trees in Japan to the impending extinction of freshwater dolphins. In her appropriately color-forward illustrations, Prabhat uses a vivid palette to reflect the author's elevated tone. Limited in some ways, but shines with both facts and feeling. (glossary)(Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
