Customer Reviews

The Black Book of Colors

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Wholly engaging books that allows kids to visualize the world with their fingertips. In my house we're interested in both art and languages (among a whole host of other things), and I've used this book with my girls to introduce them to Braille and to help them understand figurative language. Several times since we brought this book home I've found the youngest kid curled up in a dark closet with this book practicing her Braille and running her fingers over the raised illustrations.

I was so excited to find a book which would present colors through the other senses as those of us who are blind must try to do. Even more exciting was to find an off-the-shelf book already in Braille; wow! However, upon ordering two copies of this book, I was horrified to find that the Braille is so smashed that it's almost unreadable. The low dot consistency is the same throughout the entire book, both books, so it is not as though something was sat on top of the book and smashed the Braille. It's the paper the the Braille was embossed on and anyone who Brailles professionally should know that such flattened dots are NOT acceptable. LOVE the book itself, the way the colors are presented, and even the tactile depictions aren't bad. But as a Braille reader, the text is unreadable.

Wonderful book of what it means to be blind in a world of colors. It speaks to the artist's soul in us all in a non-preachy, non-sentimental way. The words and the embossed etchings are exactly right.

this is a really cool book, its a kids book of colours for blind children. the whole book is black, there is no other colour, but on every page there is a picture the sticks up for a person to feel and there is the accompanying sentence on the opposite side with braille under it. at the end it has the braille alphabet. it's a really cool idea.

I admit I don't have the smartest fingers in the world, but the Braille in this book has some problems. It's not tactile enough to read by finger, at least not to me. I also wish the Braille were contracted (grade 2) Braille, as is standard; I think this would increase the accessibility for Braille readers, who could well find the book interesting. The tactile pictures, however, are REALLY neat, and I wish I could use similar techniques with my own tactile graphics. I guess I'll have to stick with shirt paint, though. :(

I see a lot of usefulness in this book, despite the shortcomings. It would make me very happy, though, if the Braille problems could be corrected (especially the readability problem, even if uncontracted Braille were still used). Perhaps this can be fixed in the future, although I don't think the book should be marketed as being completely accessible to blind people until then.

I received this book today. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. I am an art teacher and this opened my eyes! I did not know what was in store for me when I opened it. The text is well written, and each page is wonderfully touchable. Enjoy!

What does a color sound like? Or feel like? Or taste like? This book helps you answer those questions. Close your eyes and think about it.