PINK

Language and colors glow together as a young girl yearns to fill her life with pink. “Vivi is dizzy with wanting pink,” because pink describes not only objects (such as schoolmates’ clothing “from hair bows to tippy toes”) but also security and joy. Whereas Vivi’s apartment building is brown, she imagines “the Pinks” living “in houses, pink inside like shells, their dads home every night.” Vivi’s own truck-driving father is often away. When she spots a pink bridal doll in a shop, readers know that the doll’s no mere toy but a symbolic vanquishing of longing and loneliness. Vivi works to earn cash for the doll, but Gregory provides no romanticized purchase. Instead, more satisfyingly, she offers a family picnic (pink food), a moment of harsh disappointment and a bonding with dad over money frustrations. Dad and Vivi are luminescently violet when they feel better, their faces tinged in pink—the same pink that subtly edged Vivi and her family all along. Tender, melancholy and warm. (Picture book. 4-7)