Color Dance

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.

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. (Aug.)

Ann Jonas has written and illustrated many popular books for children, including Color Dance, Reflections, and Round Trip, which was an ALA Notable Book and a "New York Times" Best Illustrated Book. She is a graduate of Cooper Union and has worked as a graphic designer for many years with her husband, Donald Crews. They live in upstate New York.