Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends, but one day they can’t find each other. When they finally do, they give each other such a big hug that they turn green! How they find their true colors again concludes a wonderfully satisfying story told with colorful pieces of torn paper and very few words.
- ISBN: 9780375860133
- Author: Lionni, Leo
- Published: 2009 , Random House Children's Books
- Themes: color, Friendship
- Descriptors: Early Years (ages 2-6), Fantasy, Italy, Picture Book
- No. of pages: 48
Little Blue and Little Yellow is a simply written and illustrated book, but it teaches children a concept. In the book, Little Blue and Little Yellow “hug” to make green. The author personifies the colors to make it easy for children to relate to the book. Studies have been done that proves using personification in Early Childhood literature helps children make meaning from the text because they can relate to the characters. I wonder if the author knew this back in the fifties when he wrote it. The characters are so simple and there isn’t a detailed background, but children are engrossed in the story. The author also illustrated the book; I wonder why he chose to use blots of paint as the characters. I read this story to my preschoolers and they loved the book. They were able to start to understand that when you mix colors together, it makes a different color.
This book is great to introduce the topic of colors and mixing colors. Another book I would pair this with is Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This book adds the third color red and introduces more colors that can be made by mixing. An activity that I would pair with this book would be to have children act out the book Mouse Paint using their fingers and paint. Then, have children experiment mixing other colors together and have an open discussion of what they are experiencing.