RED BEAR

A small, deceptively simple book that introduces the rainbow colors plus black, white, pink, brown, and gray. A red bear dons several garments of different colors, one by one; he feeds his black cat white milk, licks pink ice cream, and rides a gray elephant before snoozing under a patchwork that recapitulates all the colors. Like Byron Barton, Rikys outlines bold areas of vibrant color in black, but her economical designs are uniquely hers, imbued with unusual warmth evoked by her broad but gentle line's embracing curves. Each illustration is simply captioned by a single color word printed on a facing page of the appropriate color. Carefully conceived and unusually effective.