What Can You Do With a Color?

What Can You Do With A Color? is a 32 page picture book designed as an early learning book. Its premise is to encourage young readers to explore the imaginative use of colours and to introduce the concept of how three basic colours can be mixed to form new ones. Although it addresses these two intentions to some degree, it unfortunately misses the mark of being a real winner worthy of enjoyment as a read-aloud or as an addition to an educator’s bookshelves. Instead, this picture book comes across as pedestrian and flat, missing the essential imaginative sparkle in both its illustrations and accompanying text.

The cover is less than engaging, featuring a purple cloud raining down little dashes of colour against a white background. The bottom corner of the cover introduces a scruffy black oval scribble which has been transformed into a little character through the addition of stick arms and legs and large white googly eyes. This “thumbprint-style” critter becomes the book’s narrator and reappears in different colours on the ensuing pages. However, its flat illustrative style is a severe contrast to the lively portrayal of the other animals featured in the book. This simplistic artistic depiction limits its ability to show joy in the use of colour which is the central theme of the story. This character is usually situated in the fringes of the pages, looking sad or perplexed. Had this colour “guide” been portrayed in a more delightful, dynamic, or appealing fashion, it could have done a much more effective job of encouraging a small child to join its adventure through the world of colour.

The text of the book is equally uninspiring. Even the insertion of a few exclamation points or word emphasis doesn’t enhance the mood.

I love playing with colors.
What can you do with a color?
Let’s find out. Follow me!

You can make red clouds…
And red birds that fly high
Among the red clouds.

You can make a yellow lake…
And yellow frogs that go boing!
All around the yellow lake.

You can also make a blue tree…
And a funny little blue squirrel
Who lives inside the blue tree.

The repetitive motif of the setting and colour at the end of each colour example is also abandoned in the final purple colour example. A playful rhyme throughout would have been so much more effective and injected some life across the pages.

Young children will likely entertain a few giggles over that fact that the illustrations poke fun at realistic colour rules and encourage them to explore an unconventional use of colour. Imagine! Who has ever heard of “green monkeys that float in the green sky”? For those little ones who already know their colours, the next pages introduce the more complex idea of mixing these to form new possibilities.

You can also mix red and blue
To make a purple city…

However, for youngsters, this concept would have been so much more powerful had it been accompanied with vibrant illustrations that showed the two primary colours somehow flowing together to form the secondary colour, such as a red city and blue city with roads swirling into one another to form the new colour of purple.

This picture book’s final oversight lies in its concluding pages. Instead of building to an exciting double-page spread and reintroducing the previous animals, scenery, and all the different colours, the thumbprint-style character (now rainbow-coloured) is seen waving goodbye on the left-hand page asking, “What can you do with a color?” Sadly, all these wonderful colours haven’t resulted in this dreary little guy developing a more dynamic personality.

Directly across on the right-hand page, the story abruptly transforms into a simple colour-theory guide clearly designed for adults. This useful addition would have been more effective included separately after the story’s end and not located adjacent. The guide identifies the primary and secondary colours and explains that primary and secondary colours can also be mixed but omits mention of the term tertiary colours. On the back of this page, there is further information about the consistent order of the colours of the rainbow, without explaining which colour starts at the top of the arch. Warm and cool colours are identified. Noticeably absent is the mention of white and black even though they are used throughout the book’s illustrations. Are these colours? And just how do you create the colour brown? These are questions sure to be asked by any number of inquisitive young artists. Parents better be ready to Google for answers because the book does not provide explanations.

What Can You Do With A Color? has been created as a companion book for What Can You Do With a Line? by the same author and artist duo from Istanbul. Gülşah Yemen is an experienced preschool teacher who “loves children and writing for children”, and Çağri Odabaşi is a mechanical engineer and freelance children’s book illustrator who also designs educational games.

Creating a picture book that both delights and gently teaches youngsters is a challenging enterprise. It requires the right balance of enchanting illustrations, captivating language, and a quiet nod to the magic of imagination. With no clear story line, no sparkle to clearly engage the young reader, and too many missing elements in its design, What Can You Do With A Color? is not recommended.