Little Maya longs to find brilliant, beautiful, inspiring color in her world.…but Maya’s world, the Mojave Desert, seems to be filled with nothing but sand. With the help of a feathered friend, she searches everywhere to discover color in her world. In the brilliant purple of her mother\’s flowers, the cool green of a cactus, the hot pink sunset, and the shiny black of Papi\’s hair, Maya finally finds what she was looking for. The book’s appealing narrative and bold illustrations encourage early readers to observe and explore, and to discover the colors in their own
- ISBN: 9780892392216
- Author: Gonzalez, Maya Christina
- Published: 2007 , Children's Book Press
- Themes: colors, Culture, Nature
- Descriptors: Americas, Bilingual, Concept Book, Early Years (ages 2-6), Latinx in US, Mexico, North America, Primary (ages 6-9), United States
- No. of pages: 24
At first glance, My Colors, My World, may appear to simply tell the story of a young girl and the colors she identifies in her life however, it can also be used to discuss and celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity. With students that are monolingual or emergent bilinguals, it can be used to explore a new language since it is written in both English and Spanish. The focus of this book is appreciating the colors of the world around you; therefore I think it would be a fantastic book to use in order to talk about the beauty of all skin tones and people of diverse racial backgrounds. Furthermore, I believe that this book could be used to introduce critical literacy skills. While this story contains a wide array of colors, much like our world, do we see people of many different colors represented in books? How are people of diverse backgrounds depicted? Why aren’t people of different backgrounds represented in literature often? These are questions which can be posed to students young and old alike in order to help them view the books they read through a critical lens.