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HOW DO YOU EAT COLOR?

Name: HOW DO YOU EAT COLOR?
Author: Mabi David
ISBN: 9780802856388

by Mabi David ; illustrated by Yas Doctor ; translated by Karen Llagas ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2025

A delectable journey through the imagination—and the palate.

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This Filipino import offers a colorful approach to healthy eating.

Nutritionists often encourage people to adopt a rainbow-hued diet in order to ensure they consume a wide array of fruits and vegetables. Two unnamed brown-skinned, dark-haired kids, accompanied by a bug-eyed chameleon, do just that. As the book opens, they’re presented with a basket of various Southeast Asian produce. Each subsequent page is devoted to a single color, with a few matching foods. “Savor GREEN outside as you play!” One youngster and the chameleon stare in wonder, surrounded by a forest of bok choy as the other child runs around amid a field of moringa. Later, the three of them slowly paddle along a yellow river dotted with islands of pineapples and ears of corn: “Yellow can be syrupy like a spoonful of mango, or mild like corn on the cob.” David’s use of figurative language is downright delicious, while Doctor deftly uses different hues of the same color within a single page, with dynamic results; on one page, blots and spills of orange and yellow bleed into each other. Readers will enjoy noticing how the chameleon changes colors with each scene. The trio eventually fall asleep, surrounded by the darker shades of purple yam and plums. An equally vibrant guide to the produce mentioned is included in the backmatter, along with tips for incorporating healthy, environmentally friendly practices into one’s life.

A delectable journey through the imagination—and the palate. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 18, 2025

ISBN: 9780802856388

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Eerdmans

Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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A BIKE LIKE SERGIO'S

by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...

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Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.

This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)