Ross Collins is a talented illustrator who has worked on over 100 books including award winning There’s a Bear on My Chair. He also writes books including award winning The Elephantom and this colour-tastic read, Colour My Days.
The front cover certainly had me intrigued and just as the cover and title suggests, it certainly is an explosion of colour that awaits you.
Meet Emmy and Jeff. They are two, rather cool characters, who find the world they live in a tad dull because their world lacks colour. This is of course until Monday arrives.
Mondays are normally a day hoping for Sunday to magically reappear but for Emmy and Jeff their Monday is magical and all things yellow!
Yellow arriving certainly does brighten up their day and with it the fun begins, including riding on every day objects which are sure to get a giggle from little ones. The double page is full of things for young eyes to spot and they are all the same colour. Seeing the yellow certainly makes me feel brighter and this is definitely an aspect of the book that could be discussed, how colours can make you feel.
As the week continues Emmy and Jeff are introduced to more colours of the rainbow, including pink. The magic of the pink page is that it goes against stereotypical gender expectations. Emmy, absolutely dislikes pink, she doesn’t take part in the tea party where as Jeff truly embraces pink on Thursday. There would be nothing wrong if Emmy did embrace the colour pink however, it certainly makes a great point for discussion.
By the end of the week Emmy and Jeff have met many colours but it all gets too much the following week when all colours come to play. They are both strong characters and show the colours the door leaving the world colourful but their home black and white.
The introduction to colours is completed in a fun and imaginative way. This book is not only a great one for children who are learning about colours and colour names but also great for keen, young readers. The format of each double page is similar in that a short sentence is used with speech bubbles. The familiarity of the subject matter for emerging readers and the repetitive format I’m sure will enthuse young readers and lets not forget how fun and bold each double page is.
The more I read it, the more I love it and the teacher in me keeps connecting the book to discussions, emotions, writing opportunities and art projects. For very young ones the book could be used as resource to colour match, something my youngest and I did. For older children art work and written work could be produced concentrating on one colour (or black and white) as well as the scientific side of exploring a colour wheel and colour mixing. Many possibilities.
Ross Collins has produced a book that is vibrant and fun and sure to be well received by many young readers.
Thank you so much to publishers Barrington Stoke for sending us this book.