Living with the use of one's eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this innovative title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This extraordinary title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 8—With entirely black pages and a bold white text, this is not your typical color book. Meant to be experienced with the fingers instead of the eyes, this extraordinary book allows sighted readers to experience colors the way blind people do: through the other senses. The text, in both print and Braille, presents colors through touch (yellow is "as soft as a baby chick's feathers"), taste (red "as sweet as watermelon"), smell ("green smells like grass that's just been cut"), and sound (brown "crunches…like fall leaves"). Faría's distinctive illustrations present black shapes embossed on a black background for readers to feel instead of see. One page even describes a rainbow. A guide to the Braille alphabet appears at the end of the book. Fascinating, beautifully designed, and possessing broad child appeal, this book belongs on the shelves of every school or public library committed to promoting disability awareness and accessibility. A feast for the fingers.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* How do you describe the colors of the rainbow to someone who cannot see them? This inventive picture book relates the ways Thomas experiences colors—through his senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. To Thomas, red is the sting of a skinned knee or the tartness of an unripe strawberry; green, the scent of freshly mown grass. What is most remarkable about this book’s captivating concept, however, is its execution. Black raised line art is set against black pages that echo Thomas’ spirited imagery and invite readers to explore what it’s like to read with their fingertips. The descriptive, sensory text, which also incorporates white type and Braille, combined with an innovative design, makes this book the perfect starting point for discussions on difference, perspective, and experiencing and describing the world in new ways, topics that are relevant to readers of all ages. Winner of the New Horizons Prize at the 2007 Bologna Children’s Book Fair and originally published in Spanish, the book concludes with a Braille alphabet. Grades K-3. --Kristen McKulski
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 54 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Why make a book on what reading Braille feels like and make the Braille UNREADABLE?
February 20, 2009
By W. Eisenberg
Format:Hardcover
My Braille reading friends tell me that they CANNOT read this book because it is not real Braille--the dots are not high enough to be readable.
Therefore, if the point is to introduce children to what reading Braille feels like, the authors/publishers are doing an actual disservice because they are not accomplishing that goal, and they are giving a false impression of what Braille is and what it feels like.
I, as a librarian at a library for the blind and disabled, am extremely disappointed.
Therefore, if the point is to introduce children to what reading Braille feels like, the authors/publishers are doing an actual disservice because they are not accomplishing that goal, and they are giving a false impression of what Braille is and what it feels like.
I, as a librarian at a library for the blind and disabled, am extremely disappointed.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Ulyyf
Format:Hardcover
This is a very good book. The concept is innovative, the raised illustrations are engaging (even though they have no color), the language is beautiful.
But the Braille is absolutely unreadable. It's simply not high enough, and it's in "Grade 1" Braille - the most basic (hardest to read) form of Braille out there, with no contractions or abbreviations.
So here you have a book that purports to show you what it's like to be blind, while being completely unusable by blind children. It's kinda like having a wheelchair accessible bathroom at the bottom of a flight of stairs - the thought definitely does NOT count.
If that problem were remedied, then I'd be able to tell all my friends to buy a copy of this book. Until then - three stars. And that's ENTIRELY on potential.
But the Braille is absolutely unreadable. It's simply not high enough, and it's in "Grade 1" Braille - the most basic (hardest to read) form of Braille out there, with no contractions or abbreviations.
So here you have a book that purports to show you what it's like to be blind, while being completely unusable by blind children. It's kinda like having a wheelchair accessible bathroom at the bottom of a flight of stairs - the thought definitely does NOT count.
If that problem were remedied, then I'd be able to tell all my friends to buy a copy of this book. Until then - three stars. And that's ENTIRELY on potential.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By MonkeyDog
Format:Hardcover
my mom got this for my daughter who is blind - and I have to say that this is the first book we've gotten that really speaks to experiencing the world beyond that of what we see. It's about color - but from an experience point of view rather than a visual point of view. And the illustrations, are so detailed and lovely. This is a fantastic book - all my daughter's sighted cousins were jealous!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Perspective!
This is a book that opens the doors to "color" in a very different perspective...very beautiful book for building sensitivity and understanding!
Published 2 months ago by Janice Bahns
1.0 out of 5 stars
Severely Disappointed!
Product claims to include braille, but is not of the like! The braille printed in the book is so flat that it is unreadable. I'm also not happy at all with the color descriptions. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Briana
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed feelings...
I should have read the details about this book... Every single page of this book is black with not a single color, other than the white text. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J E
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meant for sighted readers
Customer Video Review
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Published 9 months ago by vagneralbino
1.0 out of 5 stars
Braille cannot be read
I was so excited when I found that I could order this book from Amazon, but when I received it, the book was tightly sealed in plastic. The braille has been flattened. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Gillian
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE
This book provides a different experience of reading. I think every family and every classroom should have this. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent sensory experience
This book was part of the workshop activities for Project Learning Tree. I was not sure if my preschoolers would be able to appreciate and learn from the book, but they really... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Julie A. Armstrong
5.0 out of 5 stars
rarely do i get excited about a book, but this one is special
as a former preschool teacher, this book addresses a number of issues (although i understand that braille may not be one of them from other reviews). Read more
Published 15 months ago by Gregory M. Uba
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
As a teacher, I bought this book as a diversity book. The students found it very interesting how the book described colors and how they could feel the pictures.
Published 16 months ago by Leigh
3.0 out of 5 stars
this was a bad book.
It was short and sweet. I kinda liked it. It talkes about the colors of the earth. And how they effect everything.
Published 21 months ago by Tyler
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