| Ingram’s Storytime Stars: Color Splash! |
by Tracy Taylor, MLS
When the skies are gray, color saves the day.
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Written and illustrated by Nancy Tafuri, Blue Goose uses farmyard animals pitching in to paint the previously black, white, and gray barnyard to explore the concept of primary and secondary colors. Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick, and White Duck make over their home while Farmer Gray is away for the day. With large, clean lines, the art carries well for a large group, and the simple storyline will engage the listeners.
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What are the favorite colors of the children in your group? In Cat's Colors, by Jane Cabrera, Cat explores the various colors. Asking us what Cat's favorite color is allows Cat the opportunity to describe all sorts of items of various colors. However, at the end we find out that Cat's favorite color is orange because that is the color of Cat's mother.
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How do you feel about guessing games? Lemons Are Not Red, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, allows your audience to respond with the correct color of the item and name off other items that are the color under discussion. This could quickly become a lively storytime if all are given the opportunity to make suggestions.
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Do your storytime children like to color? Patricia Hubbard offers an exuberant text in My Crayons Talk, which joins with enthusiastic illustrations by G. Brian Karas. Utilizing a cheerful, rhyming text, the narrator tells us all that her crayons have to say. What else would they say if given the opportunity to talk?
There are many other books to celebrate color as well.
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Lois Ehlert's classic Planting a Rainbow would work well to explore both color and the opportunity spring gives for planting one's own rainbow. Another classic, Leo Lionni's A Color of His Own, also works well incorporating simple science into a storytime. Furthermore, remember that Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle, makes a great participatory story.
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It doesn't matter what the weather looks like outside the library, inside can be bright and cheery when you add colorful stories to the day.
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