STANLEY'S PAINT BOX

Stanley and his friends learn how to mix colors while transforming ordinary cardboard boxes into a vibrant castle.

Bee’s hamster protagonist, Stanley, and his animal friends Sophie, Benjamin, and Little Woo are back in this board book. This time, they are taking white and primary paints and learning how to make secondary colors. Standing in a room full of cardboard boxes, they begin transforming them little by little, and readers will notice a red paw print, orange circles, and green stripes standing out against the brown. The work progresses until all the boxes (and animals) are decorated and cardboard towers assembled. Stanley and his friends are darling, but the way Bee applies his colors is what’s most eye-catching. The boxes look as though they were truly painted by children, a nice detail, and the sight of the animals themselves bedecked in splatters of paint rings true. All of the illustrations appear against a white background, and the text is set in a color block along the bottom of each spread; its color matches the described paint mixture in each spread. Stanley’s Toolbox finds Stanley helping Little Woo fix up his treehouse using everything from a glue gun to a drill. Though neither book does anything radically different, both are written at the right pace and level for little readers, offering illustrations that hit the mark.

Paints a sweet and colorful story.