BLUE AND OTHER COLORS

The fine art of Matisse introduces little readers to colors.

Matisse’s cutouts employed colors and special manipulation to suggest shape. Here, the famous artist’s work is used to familiarize little ones with the variety of color the world has to offer and how these colors can work with one another. The cutouts employ blues, greens, blacks, oranges, and yellows, and the narrative text points out each color and how it’s used in each print. “Green and blue again, and, hey, what’s that other color? / It looks like purple!” The names of colors mentioned are printed in the appropriate hues. The final page of the board book provides a short note about Henri Matisse and his body of work, and a key to the artworks reproduced appears in teeny-tiny type on the inside of the front cover. Parents and readers looking for a way to inspire creativity and move beyond basic color identification will do well with this one, but those whose children are just starting to tell the difference between blue and green may want to wait a bit before adding this board book to the storytime stack.

An excellent read to kick-start an evolution in budding artist’s minds.