The Black Book of Colors

Written and illustrate by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria

Translated by Elisa Amado

Groundwood Books, 2008

Genre: Children's picture book, fiction; Braille

Reading Level: Ages 5-10

24 pages

The Black Book of Colors is a book about colors and their role in their world, though there is only two colors in the book, black and white. Each page has a description of a color and somewhere it is found in the world, the description is typed out and written in braille on the top of the page. On the other side of the page is an embossed picture of the object that is being described. It is hard to see but you can feel it. For example, one of the pages says, "Red is sour like unripe strawberries and as sweet as watermelon. It hurts when he finds it on his scraped knee." On the other side is a strawberry on a stem embossed into the page. Thomas is the person explaining the description and the reader infers that he is blind, and is helping the reader understand a little better what it's like to be blind. The book covers all the main colors; red, yellow, brown, blue, white, green, and of course black. Thomas describes each color not by how they look, but how they appeal to his other senses. The book ends, "Thomas likes all the colors because he can hear them and small them and touch them and taste them." There is also a braille alphabet in the back.

I would recommend this book to any child who wants to better understand a blind friend or family member. While it could in no way portray the disability, it gives the child a taste of it, and might help them to understand it more, and maybe be more empathetic.

I feel no problems could come from this book, it is an excellent teaching book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and different from any other picture book I've ever read and it has a really good moral, and is extremely creative.

My rating: 5 out of 5