Product Description

Celebrate the colors of children and the colors of love--not black or white or yellow or red, but roaring brown, whispering gold, tinkling pink, and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40371 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"Lyrical" text and "extraordinary, light-filled" paintings celebrate the earth, children and the diversity of the world's ethnic heritages, said PW. Ages 4-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-A poetic picture book and an exemplary work of art. The simple text describes children's skin tones and hair in terms of natural phenomena ("...the roaring browns of bears"; "...hair that curls like sleeping cats in snoozy cat colors") and then describes love for these children with rich colors and flavors ("...love comes in cinnamon, walnut, and wheat..."). Hamanaka's oil paintings are all double-page spreads filled with the colors of earth, sky, and water, and the texture of the artist's canvas shines through. The text is arranged in undulant waves across each painting. This might be paired with Arnold Adoff's Black Is Brown Is Tan (HarperCollins, 1973), for younger readers, or his All the Colors of the Race (Lothrop, 1982), for older students, or read alone in celebration of diversity.
Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 3-8. How better to celebrate ethnic diversity than to look to children, the hope of the future? This glorious picture book, with its spare, lyrical text, does just that. Illustrated with oil paintings of youngsters of all ages, the carefully worded text rolls in serpentine swirls across pages on which children "who come in all the colors of the earth" laugh, smile, ponder, join hands, and rejoice in the common pleasure of being young. Upbeat and exuberant, this is a selection to share. Deborah Abbott

Customer Reviews

Great for affirming the beauty of all children
I am a first grade teacher and I use this book in my clasroom every year. It celebrates the beauty of all skin colors, hair colors and eye colors. This book teaches children that they are beautiful and that the people around them (even those who look very different from them) are beautiful as well! The small amount of text makes it short and easy to read, so the focus of a child's attention can be on the message of the book.

Artist in Motion
I bought this book for the story, and it turns out that I like the story but I love the paintings. I am a high school teacher and I include this book as a part of my unit on children's literature. It is very popular with the most surprising people! The message is universal, in celebrating our beauty as humanity, and the paintings have a sense of joy. Lovely.

All the Colors Is Right!
I loved this book. Between the beautiful illistrations and the great message, it is a 5 star book. Kids will have fun looking at the pictures and seeing all the kids of different colors. I love a book with a good message.