LEARNING WITH SKIP. COLORS

Kids learn color basics with a cute kitty.

As Skip helps Grandpa with chores in the garden, readers discover colors. When Skip gets wet watering the plants, the text mentions his yellow raincoat. Later, he fills the birdhouse with food and discovers a robin with a red tummy. Four other hues—blue, green, purple, and orange—are similarly spotlighted. On each spread, the name of the color being highlighted appears within an icon shaped like a cat’s head. Later, Skip and Grandpa visit the flower garden, and Grandpa suggests that Skip pick a bouquet of blossoms for Grandma featuring “all the colors of the rainbow.” In this uncredited translation from Dutch, this very simple tale conveys its fundamental concepts in a sweet, though bland manner. The illustrations are lively; protagonists’ facial expressions are appealing. Note some missteps: To introduce blue, Skip is depicted looking up at the sky; right after, he’s seen learning about purple as he eats blueberries and gets purple juice all over his mouth—a potentially confusing moment, given the berry’s association with the word blue. Also, the bouquet that Skip picks doesn’t actually contain all the colors of the rainbow, as a rainbow has seven colors, one of which—indigo, separate from purple (violet, in an actual rainbow)—isn’t represented here. At book’s end, Skip introduces additional colors, some familiar, some less so. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Suffices as a very basic introduction to colors, but there are better concept books around.