Follow the Yarn: A Book of Colors

by Emily Sper

Overview

CYBILS 2016 Board Book Award Finalist

In this delightful introduction to colors, babies, toddlers, and cat lovers of all ages will enjoy following a kitten through the pages as he plays with one colorful ball of yarn after another.

Toddlers can also make a game of following the yarn from page to page as each color unravels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780975490280
Publisher:	Jump Press
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

Emily Sper writes, illustrates, and designs her books, which include the best-selling Hanukkah: A Counting Book and the award-winning The Passover Seder . Her first adult coloring book, 52 Flower Mandalas , was published in 2015. She has worked as a book designer for Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, and Scholastic, on-staff and freelance. Before founding Blue Iris Design in 1990, she was Creative Director of Marketing Services at Putnam Young Readers Group. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA Photography) and New York University (MA Media Ecology), Emily lives in Newton, MA.

Editorial Reviews

08/22/2016
It’s a cat’s paradise: with every turn of the page of this playfully simple board book, another ball of yarn trails across the blank white spreads as Sper names 11 colors. A crisply drawn black cat tussles with the yarn on each page, curling up with a scribbled ball of yellow yarn and getting tangled up in orange a few pages later. Loops of red, pink, blue, brown, and other colors create a festive atmosphere as the book draws to a close, and Sper makes a startling shift to an all-black backdrop in the final spread, rendering her star almost invisible as the cat toys with one last ball of white yarn. Ages 2–4. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

‘Follow the Yarn’ is a delightful board book of colors, featuring playful cat silhouettes playing with balls of colored yarn against a dramatic white background. Each two page layout has the word name for the color of the ball of yarn spelled out in the named color, so the effect is dual and dramatic. A playful black cat tangles with increasing strands from balls of colored yarn, and the scene grows, embellished by the tangling colored skeins of yarn, adding red, yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, pink, brown, gray, and black. Then the final two page illustration reverses the background color to black, to highlight the last ball of yarn which is white. A delightful, dramatic, effective presentation of all the colors under the playful paws of a mischievous black cat make ‘Follow the Yarn’ an especially riveting color sampler for preschool age children.

Midwest Book Review

Follow the Yarn is a creative new take on the basic color board book. Each page shows yarn of a different color being unraveled by a cat, and the featured color is written in big, bold, color appropriate text. On each subsequent page, the previous colors are still displayed in what creates a fun web of colors by the end of the book. The yarns crisscross each other, so toddlers will enjoy following each color's yarn to the end. The last page, white, is stunning with the colors contrasted against a black background. This book will make the task of teaching colors a delightful experience for both parents and children.

Mom's Radius

2016-10-11
A spirited black kitten plays with yarn to teach children colors in this work from author and illustrator Sper (What on Earth Can We Do?, 2016, etc.). The radiant cover gives a preview of what this concept book contains: a black kitten, surrounded by 10 different colors of yarn, appears on a spare white background. When readers open the first two-page spread, the feline—almost entirely black, but with gray highlights to depict features such as ears and paws—tackles a red ball of yarn. The word "red" is the only text. On the second two-page spread, the red ball has left a yarn trail, and the kitten cuddles a yellow ball, his blue eyes small enough that they don't distract from the "yellow" of the object. On each two-page spread, trails of the previous yarn cover part of the white background, joined by a new ball with its own strands; the only text is the new color word. By the time the animal reaches the sixth ball, the page begins to get crowded with colors, and the yarn starts to entangle the kitten as well as filling the page. But the intrepid feline never gets tied up, and the text color and the ball of yarn are always clear. On the final two-page spread, the background makes a dramatic shift; suddenly all the trails and the kitten, surrounded by a blue glow to reveal his position, are bright against a black background, as the animal bats a white ball of yarn. Beginning readers should have an easy time identifying color words because of the text's isolation and the clear visual cues. Toddlers should be able to point to each color and its word, printed in the same hue it represents, to help learn the palette the book offers. Pet lovers and youngsters will likely be charmed by this wonderful work that remains simple to follow. The tangle of yarn on each page makes this delightful volume feel more dynamic than many typical concept books, with the frisky feline an energetic guide.

Kirkus Reviews