Color Dance [Hardcover]

Ann Jonas (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

The girl in red, the girl in yellow, the girl in blue, and the boy in black and white are all set to stir up the rainbow. Watch them create a living kaleidoscope, step by step by step.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A dance theme, with children trailing and waving scarves of bright hues, teaches principles of mixing primary colors. The book opens with three figures, one dressed in red, another in blue and a third in yellow, each carrying a matching banner and saying, "This is our dance." The only subsequent text presents color facts in simple sentences: "Orange is red and yellow mixed together. No blue." On the page, the scarves demonstrate the stated concepts. The blue tone is not a medium blue, and the red is more of a dark rose, so this book does not introduce what is traditionally considered to be the true color spectrum, nor does the structure of the lesson make a vivid impression. Where the text says, "Red and blue can make magenta, and purple, and violet," the illustration does not successfully show more than one color. The idea that "blue and blue can only make blues" may be confusing to readers, who can clearly see that, at a minimum, there are lighter and darker shades of blue. Because of some of the vagaries of the concept, this remains little more than a teaching tool. All ages.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-- An exuberant, joyful celebration of color and movement, Color Dance is a concept book to use for the fun of it. Minimal text explains that many colors are the products of mixes of red, yellow, and blue; a note explains that red can appear in a variety of shades. Emphasizing the color concepts, each color word is printed in the color it describes throughout the book. The same message is visually conveyed by the movement of three very young dancers, whose waving scarves produce the blends. Joined by a boy carrying a white, then a gray scarf, the characters are racially and sexually mixed. Using line and shadow, Jonas captures the movement of the children well. White space is used effectively, and each watercolor illustration stands cleanly on a double-page spread. An author's note explains that this dance is a fantasy, ". . .easier to perform on paper than on a stage." A color wheel completes the conceptual design. This vigorous, fresh approach to color will be welcomed by picture-book lovers, and storytime groups as well. --Carolyn Noah, Worcester Public Library, MA
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 1st edition (October 23, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688059902
• ISBN-13: 978-0688059903
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful way to teach kids to read names of colors., October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Color Dance (Hardcover)

It's appropriate for age 3 & 4 year olds to learn to read the entire book by themselves. Wonderful as a first reader!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, if a bit confusing, October 19, 2008

By 

MYOB (Radford, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Dance (Hardcover)

This book is, for starters, quite visually beautiful. However, it can be confusing for children because of the way it is done. The "red" is actually magenta (looks like hot pink) and the "blue" is actually cyan (looks like turquoise). Because of the four-color printing process, some of the color blends are quite murky, the different shades of purple are not distinct, etc. It might actually be better enjoyed as a wordless introduction to colors for the smallest children, who will love to just look at the pictures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful visual representations of how colors are mixed, September 6, 2008

By 

Sylvia Lyons (Franklin, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Color Dance (Hardcover)

The Color Dance shows 4 children, each "dancing" with a large colored scarf. There are the three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, and as they overlay their scarves, it illustrates how the primary colors are mixed to create other colors. The fourth child overlays the colors with white, gray, and black to show how white makes colors paler and gray and black make colors darker. As it's said, a picture is worth a thousand words. The illustrations in this book make it easy for even a very young child to understand how colors are made.