The Color Box

A celebration of color leads readers on an adventure with Alexander the Monkey as he slips through yellow, orange, blue, red, and green die-cut holes. By the author of Wheel Away.

PreSchool-Grade 1-- A monkey named Alexander crawls into a box. ``It was black, /Black everywhere-- / Everywhere he : looked. / Only one spot / Was not.'' This ``spot'' is a hole in the page, revealing a bit of the all-yellow world the curious chimp discovers after he climbs through. He then finds an orange cut-out and continues to discover various new colors. Finally he reaches white, discovers a movable flap door, and steps through to find ``. . . a world . . . of color'' in the zoo where he lives. Laroche's cut-paper collages work perfectly, lending the box the needed three-dimensional effect. The layers and shadows effectively distinguish and set off the various shades of the objects. The smooth text is patterned and predictable, but varied enough to remain lively. The spots change in location, size, and shape to sustain interest and keep children guessing. Sure to please both in story time and one-on-one, The Color Box is an entertaining and original concept book. --Steven Engelfried, Pleasanton Library, CA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A series of die-cut holes lead a monkey (and readers) through a succession of colors, inviting stops at each spread to pick out ``yellow daisies, yellow bees, yellow bananas up in trees,'' or ``green leaves, green frogs, green lizards under logs.'' The idea is not to present colors at their purest, but to sample the range that the words connote--reds here can be deep peach or purplish-pink; some greens would fit comfortably on the yellow spread; yellow and white come out more monochromatic. Laroche's cut and folded paper objects seem to float above the page, lending an intriguing three-dimensional air. (Picture book. 0-5) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.