Some people think of blue as sad, but the little girl narrator says her blue is happy. Her mother finds yellow to be "cheery," but the little girl's yellow is "worried." This is both a celebration of colors and a book about feelings and perceptions, contrasting the ways two people see the same thing. Chien's acrylic paintings fill the pages with intense hues.

Some people may think of blue as a sad color, but the little girl narrator of this picture book has her own opinion about that, and her blue is happy. Her mother finds yellow to be “cheery…like the summer sun,” but the little girl’s yellow “is worried / Like a wilting flower / And a butterfly caught in a net.” Dad thinks brown is “ordinary / Like a plain paper bag,” but our narrator’s brown is “special / Like chocolate syrup… / And a piece of earth / that’s just for me.” It’s at once a celebration of the world and its colors and a book about feelings and perceptions, contrasting the differences between the way two people see the same thing. Chien’s acrylic paintings fill the pages with intense shades of the featured colors (especially striking is a double-page spread depicting green “as old as a forest”), while reflecting the human relationships with humor and tenderness through facial expressions and body language. Readers and young listeners can have some good conversations about their own color perceptions after sharing this warm, deceptively simple concept book. susan dove lempke

A little girl's contrarian views about the emotional significance of various colors permit her to explore her individuality among family and friends. " 'Yellow is cheery,' says my mom. / 'Like the summer sun.' / But my yellow is worried / Like a wilting flower / And a butterfly caught in a net." Her best friend loves pink: "It's pretty, like a ballerina's tutu." Pink can be annoying, however, like a bug bite and gum on a shoe. Chien's acrylic double-page spread shows four pink-clad dancers in a studio, with our narrator troubled both by flying pests and, yes, gum stretching from her slipper's sole. Young's plainly delivered, poetic text achieves a subtly conspiratorial tone, as the little girl establishes the specialness of brown chocolate syrup and gray's "curled-up kitten" coziness. Some of the metaphorical musings seem too adult for a child narrator and might elude young children, especially since Chien illustrates some and ignores others. (That captured butterfly, for example, never appears, and a prowling orange tiger seems to confront the narrator directly.) Her rich but controlled palette and simply drawn faces evoke a bit of Brian Karas' work. An uneven but interesting meditation on the resonance of color, for classroom or family sharing. (Picture book. 4-7)

Blue is sad and red means angry, right? Not for a thoughtful girl who sees colors less conventionally than those around her. "Yellow is cheery.... Like the summer sun," the girl's mother tells her as they stand on opposite sides of a golden field. "But my yellow is worried," the girl reflects. "Like a wilting flower/ And a butterfly caught in a net." While the girl's father sees brown as "ordinary/ Like a plain paper bag," it's "special" for the girl; Chien (The Longest Night) paints her squeezing chocolate syrup all over her chocolate ice cream, eyes closed in delight. As debut author Young takes readers through nine colors, she gently introduces the idea of opposites and invites children to consider the different feelings colors can evoke. Working in acrylic, Chien easily keeps up with the story's shifting moods, showing how a gray rainstorm can be simultaneously cold (in the murky outdoors) and warm, as the girl curls up inside with her grandmother on a cozy armchair. Ages 3-7. Author's agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 1-3-In this engaging story, a little girl realizes that not everyone feels the same about colors. Her sister sees blue as sad and associates it with lonely songs. But the protagonist sees it as happy because it reminds her of her favorite jeans and the pool on a hot day. Dad says brown is ordinary like a paper bag but chocolate syrup is the association that the child makes. Art teachers will gravitate toward this upbeat title to let children begin to explore the importance of color. Chien's illustrations are appropriately vibrant and allow for the different interpretations that the text suggests. This idea of colors and the associations youngsters have about them is an interesting subject and would make for some great writing activities. How do you feel when you see red? How about violet or orange? Having children compare their notions of the same colors would make for some great conversations. This child knows her own mind and feelings and isn't about to have someone else's associations color her world. Use the story with Emma Dodd's Dog's Colorful Day (Dutton, 2001), Roseanne Thong's Red Is a Dragon (Chronicle, 2001), Ellen Stoll Walsh's Mouse Paint (Houghton Harcourt, 1989), and Jane Brocket's Ruby, Violet, Lime (Millbrook, 2012) to further explore color with children.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.