In this warm and appealing prose poem, Patricia Godwin skillfully explores children's emotions as they may emerge on any given day, joyous sometimes, even jubilant, occasionally sad and lonely. The boy who feels orange today equates moods with all the colors of the rainbow:
I like yellow days.
Mr. Happy Sun lights up all the corners of my secret fort.
Joel, my best friend, plays with me all day.
Purple days are a muddle.
Sometimes I feel bright blazing purple.
Sometimes I feel gentle sad violet.
I don't know where I lost my shoes, and
It wasn't me that left the light on.
Kitty Macaulay is completely in tune with her text. Her lovely, loose pen and ink and water color illustrations are fine, sensitive work. Her bold reversals of "proper proportions" and her deft introduction of mythical creatures into scenes of domestic life will delight children and adults alike.
