By Janelle Mathis, Professor Emeritus, University of North Texas

The color yellow has always offered opportunities to celebrate, and fittingly so given its association with positive emotions and energy such as happiness, hope, warmth, enlightenment, confidence and enthusiasm. As it is a personal favorite color, I am especially drawn to illustrations that use yellow as a pop of color against a black/white/gray background, also known as monochromatic with a color accent. Thus, when A Dog Wearing Shoes or The Yellow Butterfly became part of my personal and classroom connection, I began gathering titles that had similar approaches to telling their story through art and focusing on the impact of this pop of color in each title, as well as those with perhaps a second accent color when appropriate to the story. My exploration gathered numerous titles and extended as well to those books where yellow (or gold) is a key color although not necessarily on a neutral background, such as A Place Where Sunflowers Grow (Amy Lee-Tai and Felicia Hoshino, il., 2006), Typewriter (Yevgenia Nayberg, 2020), or The Golden Glow (Benjamin Flouw, 2018). It also led to exploring the origins of color in books such as Before Colors, Where Pigments and Dyes Come From (Annette Bay Pimentel and Madison Safer, il., 2023).

The dozen books described here are chosen to reflect a variety of topics and purposes for choosing yellow as a focal point – from authentically using a representative color, to choosing yellow as a meaningful visual to complement the story, hold interest, or provide energy to certain elements. Many of these books are wordless, inviting the reader to interpret the story through the art. In each case, these titles offer reason for celebration, reflecting happiness or offering hope in difficult situations, as well as opportunities for personal reflection on self and the world.

WOW Dozen features a list of 12 global books for children and adolescents around a theme, topic, issue or personal favorites. Each Dozen consists of ten newly-published titles with two older “must have” books. Please share or recommend additional books that fit the theme in the comments section or on social media using #WOWDozen. Use the printer icon in the upper left corner of this post to print or save this list as a PDF.​

array(12) {
  ["_edit_lock"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(14) "1725392888:264"
  }
  ["_edit_last"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(3) "264"
  }
  ["_thumbnail_id"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(5) "42094"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_content_score"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(2) "30"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_primary_category"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(4) "5239"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(50) "https://wowlit.org/wp-content/media/Yellow-Bus.jpg"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(5) "45576"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(50) "https://wowlit.org/wp-content/media/Yellow-Bus.jpg"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(5) "45576"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_focuskw"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(6) "Yellow"
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_metadesc"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(151) "This WOW Dozen explores books that reflect a variety of topics and purposes for choosing yellow as a focal point in an otherwise chromatic picturebook."
  }
  ["_yoast_wpseo_linkdex"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(2) "88"
  }
}

• Themes: Anna Anisimova, Annette LeBlanc Cate, Beth Krommes, Corner, Digger and the Flower, Dog Wearing Shoes, Ethan Murrow, Gold, Grains of Sand, House in the Night, Invisible Elephant, Janelle Mathis, Jed Alexander, Joseph Kuefler, Loren Long, Magic Rabbit, Oleksandr Shatokhin, sangmi ko, Sibylle Delacroix, Susan Marie Swanson, Vita Murrow, Yellow Bus, Yellow Butterfly, Zero Local Next Stop: Kindness, Zo-O
• Descriptors: WOW Dozen