Christie Matheson’s vibrant, interactive picture book, The Hidden Rainbow (Greenwillow, June 9), invites readers to follow a pollinator’s path through the colorful flowers of spring. The author/illustrator spoke with Kirkus by phone, from San Francisco, for the following interview, which has been edited and condensed.

The Hidden Rainbow received a very enthusiastic citation from our reviewer, who called it, “a color/counting/concept book that will have young readers buzzing.” Out of those three components—color, counting, concept—is there one that leads the pack? Or are they all working in concert?

Thank you for that question! They do work in concert. But I would say when I was envisioning this book and really starting to develop the concept, color was definitely driving it. The idea of the rainbow of colors that you can find in nature was the thing I wanted to capture somehow. And then I love gardens, I love botanical gardens, I love bees—and I’m worried about bees—so that all kind of fit together in my mind.

The book’s backmatter gives readers more information about honeybees, such as how they interact with the plants you depict (tulips, crocuses, clover, etc.). Did you come across any strange bee trivia in your research?

Well, I researched their winter behavior a little bit, because I wanted to make sure that it was accurate (as far as a collaged bee can be accurate). They do spend winters inside their hives, and they get hungry. When they’re in there, they kind of huddle together to keep warm. As soon as it’s warm enough, when the flowers start blooming, they are superpsyched to get out and start finding some food. So they really do need you to grow spring flowers, because otherwise they’re hungry.

One thing your picture books (Tap the Magic Tree, etc.) have in common is a high level of interactivity. The Hidden Rainbow asks readers to “point,” “blow,” and “brush the snow off the budding camellias.” Why are these calls to action a large part of your work?

I think it’s another way to draw children into the story, to give them some agency in their reading, to make them feel like they’re really part of the story. Another thing that it does, in my mind, is that it makes the books feel less precious, somehow. They’re meant to be touched, they’re meant to be played with. When I was in college—I was an English major, not surprisingly—in my major seminar, one thing that my professor talked a lot about was the book not just as a text, but as an object, as a physical thing that you’re holding. That really resonated with me, because the experience of holding different books gives you different experiences; and it’s different to read on an e-reader than it is to hold an actual book. I wanted to take that to another level, especially when I saw my own children, when they were very little, loving the books they could touch and play with and be involved with beyond just listening to the words and looking at the pictures. I wanted my books to draw their readers in as much as possible.

What else do you want them to do?

I’m excited about anything I can do to get kids excited about nature. This is sort of a random thing, but I hope that after reading this book, people will pay more attention to the colors in the world around them, the colors in nature. There is so much beauty outside.

What do you think about The Hidden Rainbow arriving at a time when readers’ access to the outdoors may have changed?

Fortunately, I think, being outside, if you’re going to leave your house, is the best thing to do, rather than being inside [somewhere else]. I encourage anybody to be in nature every day, whether it's in a backyard, on a balcony in a city, wandering around, taking a hike. Anything you can do to be outside is so healthy, healing, and important right now.

With the rainbow [theme], I think it’s really beautiful that people are putting rainbows in their windows right now to thank health care workers. One of the things I’m going to talk about when I do virtual storytimes is, if you want to change up the rainbow in your window, what about doing a rainbow of flowers? Drawing them, making them, collaging them, however you want to do it. It could be fun to put a big rainbow of flowers to say a super springy, summery thank you.

Megan Labrise is the editor at large and host of the Fully Booked podcast.