WHITE IS FOR BLUEBERRY

For children ready to step past the primal “apples are red, leaves are green” stage of color coding, Shannon and Dronzek offer helping hands: “PINK is for crow . . . [turn the page] when it has just hatched from its egg. BLACK is for poppy . . . when we take the time to look inside,” and so on. The acrylic art underscores each observation in deep, rich hues; viewers can look down into a poppy’s dark center, glimpse a bear cub sniffing at white, unripe blueberries and observe the difference between a whole red apple and a cut one. Some of Shannon’s phrasing seems contorted—“Purple is for snow . . . when the snow is the shadow of us,” for instance, or “Yellow is for pine tree . . . when the tree has been cut and sawed to build,” accompanying a view of a lumberyard. Nevertheless, his insight will leave many young children regarding their world in a new way: “It all depends on when we look . . . how near or far . . . outside or in.” (Picture book. 3-6)