Review by Booklist Review
In an evocative, sprightly, and at times pensive style, these free-verse bilingual (Spanish/English) poems celebrate colors in nature. From a joyous, Ay, naranja / pequeño sol del huerto, / Orange, little sun of the orchard to a lyrical La noche se ha puesto / su vestido negro / Night has put on her black gown, children will delight in the intrinsic qualities of dynamism that imbue the outdoors. Grobler's delicate, playful, and repeatedly thought-provoking ink-and-watercolor illustrations further extend the mood and concepts behind each poem. English- and Spanish-speaking youngsters and their parents will find much to extol.--Schon, Isabel Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
K-Gr 3-From the delicate sunrise to the peace of deep night, this beautifully conceived and executed look at colors fuses minimalist, expressive poetry with exquisitely balanced watercolor paintings. "Rocked by the tide, beige fell asleep on the sand," opens the first spread, the sea shore suggested in the washed illustration. A few children and an antelope provide the link between pictures to create a cohesive whole. Who would not want to live in this world, where harmony is the touchstone? The poetry is just a tad better in the original Spanish, due mostly to its inherent assonance. However, the translators have done a solid job of keeping to the spirit of the original and approximating the rhythm and rhyme of the Spanish text. Possessing some of the delicate qualities of the art of the great Irene Haas and reminiscent of Mary O'Neill's classic Hailstones and Halibut Bones (Doubleday, 1961), this title remains sui generis. With great child appeal, Colors!/íColores! also has application as a pattern book for students of both poetry and art-and what an amazing way to introduce secondary colors, from pink to violet! An example of how one can paint with both brushes and words, this little book with classic potential deserves a place in both bookstores and libraries. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Short poems and vibrant watercolor illustrations wed successfully in this bilingual book, giving birth to a sensory exploration of nature's colors. On each spread, whimsical poetic comparisons add multiple dimensions to the seemingly simple hues ("Yellow/rolls/through/the/sky/like/a/warm/gold/coin") and suggest that colors can encompass something broader than us ("Into a tiny seed/fits clover, fits a tree,/fits the whole jungle-/fits green"). Subtleties present in the author's native Spanish are occasionally lost in translation (for example, the alliterative wordplay of Vio un lago,/vio una flor,/vio el ocaso,/avioleta! becomes "I saw a lake./I saw a flower./I saw the twilight./-Violet!"). Still, the essence of each poem remains intact. The colors are represented in beautiful paintings that contain both abstract depictions of nature as well as simple images of familiar outdoor things-birds, nests, leaves, flowers. Elegant details in the art and design further unify the poems and colors; a dynamic palette and other visual aids illustrate the passage of time, while an antelope (appearing first on the front cover, beckoning readers inside) functions as a familiar guide as it reappears throughout this first-rate collection.-Madeline Walton-Hadlock, San Jose Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Each of the volume's eleven poems focuses on one color. Sometimes using free verse and other times rhyme, the verse (in both English and Spanish) loosely follows the progression of color as day turns into night. Some of the poems are easily accessible while others are more abstruse. The accompanying illustrations, heavy on the subject color, also effectively use white space. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Flowing watercolors and charming rhymes in English and Spanish combine to convey the colors of the natural world with simple yet sophisticated grace. For the word "Blue" (written in that color) Luján writes: "It's all in the sky, / except for those flowers / and that little girl's eyes." He repeats the verse in Spanish, sometimes with slightly different words: "El Azul / está todo arriba, / salvo en unas flores / y en los ojos de una ni¿a." An impressionistic blue wash, dotted with stalks of grass and wildflowers, depicts a little girl in a blue dress with a brown antelope beside a blue pool. This same antelope dances across many of the pages, which often also include birds, fish, flowers and trees in various colors. The imagery in both words and pictures is often richly original: "Into a tiny seed / fits clover, fits a tree, / fits the whole jungle . . . fits green." A lovely book to share, reflect upon and linger over. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
