Author: Karen Katz
Illustrator: Karen Katz
Publisher and year: Square Fish, 2002
Number of pages: 32 pages
Genre: Picture Book
The book The Colors of Us tells the story of how seven-year-old Lena and her mother observe the variations in the color of their friends’ skin which is viewed in terms of food and things found in nature. Lena wanted to paint a picture of herself and she wanted to use brown paint for her own skin. But when she and her mother take a walk in the neighborhood, she starts to realize that that are so many different shades of brown.
The cover of the book has three girls and each of their skin color is different. They are all wearing sunglasses of different colors and they seem to be lying under the sun, relaxed. The book also features hands of different colors. The main character Lena is the color of cinnamon. Her mom is the color of French toast. And we see many bottles and tubes of different colors on a shelf. When they go to the playground, they see Sonia who is a light yellow brown like creamy peanut butter. They see Isabella who is chocolate brown like the cupcakes of her birthday. Lucy is peachy and tan. In the illustrations, we also see people of different colors in the background. Jo-Jin’s skin color is like honey. Kyle’s skin color is reddish brown like leaves in fall. Carlos is a light cocoa brown and Rosita is butterscotch. Later they also see colors like pizza crust which is golden brown, bronze and amber which is like a beautiful jewel, tawny tan like coconuts and coffee toffee, and color like ginger and chili powder.
After the walk, Lena thought about everyone she had met today and how each one of them has a beautiful skin color. She started drawing and she ended up painting everyone. At the end, she showed her mom the colors of them. Her mom and her seem very happy.
Through different people of different color, Lena sees the beauty in each one of them. This book celebrates differences and similarities that connect everyone together. It helps us see the world in a new and different way. Children of different color can even find themselves in this book that can let them see their own beauty they may have not noticed before.
