This Book is Gray
Lindsay Ward
Two Lions, Expected Dec 1, 2019
40 pages
Children’s book: colors, marginalizing
Amazon First Picks
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The cover is cute and totally appealing in spite of its lack of bright and cheerful colors. The values of gray and the energy created by the “brushstrokes” used work well. And then there is our little guy Gray himself there with his tiny pink cheeks cheering us on and inviting us into his book.
Gray is feeling quite despondent since he is always left out when it comes to coloring. The other colors don’t even let him join in the rainbow! So he decides to write his own book about gray. He gets a good start, but along come the primary and then the secondary colors to interrupt his progress. They don’t think it’s possible to make a book without them. Gray is boring and scary. Then along come black and white and white snows all over his book. It’s spoiled. And everyone feels bad for Gray so they offer to help if he wants them to. Working together they discover what wonderful gray animals there are hiding in the green grass and leaves and blue sky and waters and among the colorful flowers. From then on they all want to color together and Gray is no longer left out.
The artwork is simple with these little crayon tips of color for characters spouting on about the need for colors and all their characteristics and how they work together. And Gray keeps defending his position in the scheme of things. The term achromatic is brought in with a definition simple enough for young ones to understand. So we learn the theory of colors as well as a lesson about marginalization. Gray is a spunky little guy and stands up for himself. If the other colors won’t give him a place, then he’ll make his own place. We need to teach our children at an early age that no one should be left out. Not for any reason, especially not for how they look. There’s no preachiness here, just a cute story about colors. Recommended.
a thoughtful reveal 