YELLOW IS A BANANA

In Himmelman’s clever exploration of how young minds categorize the world, two siblings engage in a hilarious battle of semantics as they name colors and objects.

The premise is elegantly simple. Pointing to a fruit, one child insists, “That YELLOW is a banana,” while the other corrects with, “This BANANA is yellow,” launching a color-naming comedy that spirals delightfully out of control. (“This RED is an apple.” “No, that apple is RED.”) Spare, clean lines and a deliberately limited palette allow each featured hue to pop against white backgrounds. The visual storytelling shines in the characterizations of the two siblings. The younger child’s unconventional color naming drives the older one to distraction; the elder kid’s mounting frustration is brilliantly conveyed through body language and hair, which transforms from a neat ponytail into an increasingly frazzled explosion of tangles. The bare-bones artistic approach mirrors the straightforward text, creating space for preschool humor to flourish. A funny concept book is rare; even rarer is a funny concept book that generates chortles from both adults reading it aloud and the children in the audience. Young readers will recognize the authentic sibling dynamic and giggle at the linguistic confusion, while adults will appreciate the subtle lesson about perspective and language development. The repetitive structure builds comedic momentum, culminating in a satisfying resolution when both children finally come to an agreement. The kids have skin the white of the page.

A winningly simple concept executed with precision—perfect for preschool lovers of silly wordplay.