My Blue Is Happy

by Jessica Young, Catia Chien (Illustrator)

Overview

What is your blue like? A lyrical ode to colors — and the unique ways we experience them — follows a little girl as she explores the world with her family and friends.

Your neighbor says red is angry like a dragon’s breath, but you think it’s brave like a fire truck. Or maybe your best friend likes pink because it’s pretty like a ballerina’s tutu, but you find it annoying — like a piece of gum stuck on your shoe. In a subtle, child-friendly narrative, art teacher and debut author Jessica Young suggests that colors may evoke as many emotions as there are people to look at them — and opens up infinite possibilities for seeing the world in a wonderful new way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763651251
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	08/06/2013
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	421,714
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 9.08(h) x 0.36(d)
Lexile:	AD520L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jessica Young is a former art teacher and curriculum consultant. She writes picture books and chapter books for young readers and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Catia Chien has illustrated numerous books for children including The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater and The Longest Night: A Passover Story by Laurel Snyder. My Blue Is Happy is her first book with Candlewick Press. Catia Chien was born in Brazil and currently lives in California.

Editorial Reviews

Blue is sad and red means angry, right? Not for a thoughtful girl who sees colors less conventionally than those around her. “Yellow is cheery.... Like the summer sun,” the girl’s mother tells her as they stand on opposite sides of a golden field. “But my yellow is worried,” the girl reflects. “Like a wilting flower/ And a butterfly caught in a net.” While the girl’s father sees brown as “ordinary/ Like a plain paper bag,” it’s “special” for the girl; Chien (The Longest Night) paints her squeezing chocolate syrup all over her chocolate ice cream, eyes closed in delight. As debut author Young takes readers through nine colors, she gently introduces the idea of opposites and invites children to consider the different feelings colors can evoke. Working in acrylic, Chien easily keeps up with the story’s shifting moods, showing how a gray rainstorm can be simultaneously cold (in the murky outdoors) and warm, as the girl curls up inside with her grandmother on a cozy armchair. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Young’s plainly delivered, poetic text achieves a subtly conspiratorial tone, as the little girl establishes the specialness of brown chocolate syrup and gray’s “curled-up kitten” coziness. ... An ... interesting meditation on the resonance of color, for classroom or family sharing.
—Kirkus Reviews

In this engaging story, a little girl realizes that not everyone feels the same about colors. ... Art teachers will gravitate toward this upbeat title to let children begin to explore the importance of color.
—School Library Journal

The emotional statements about colors are effectively grounded in evocative, kid-oriented similes that add substance for listeners trying to make sense of the abstract relationship between colors and feelings. ... At the core of the narrative is the celebratory idea that people experience the world differently and that there is no end of possibilities in perspective, making this a remarkably useful text not only for color units but for exploring themes of community and the ways people are alike and different.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Readers and young listeners can have some good conversations about their own color perceptions after sharing this warm, deceptively simple concept book.
—The Horn Book

I love Jessica Young’s MY BLUE IS HAPPY! I'm adding it to my list of must-have books to inspire creative thinking. Catia Chien's vivid art is delightful, while really driving home the book's much-needed message about thinking beyond stereotypes. Highly recommended not just for art teachers, but for any teacher or parent wanting to inspire children to think more creatively about color, art, and our world.
—Peter H. Reynolds

In this delightfully original picture book, author Jessica Young takes a fresh look at familiar colors, using them as the foundation for a story that celebrates individuality and the pleasures of living in a world informed by multiple perspectives.
—BookPage Children's Corner

Children ages 3 to 6 will love this rich rainbow book... Sad, happy, mad, or glad, the kaleidoscope of colors opens up infinite possibilites for seeing the world from other perspectives.
—Kiwi Magazine

From the Publisher

Gr 1–3—In this engaging story, a little girl realizes that not everyone feels the same about colors. Her sister sees blue as sad and associates it with lonely songs. But the protagonist sees it as happy because it reminds her of her favorite jeans and the pool on a hot day. Dad says brown is ordinary like a paper bag but chocolate syrup is the association that the child makes. Art teachers will gravitate toward this upbeat title to let children begin to explore the importance of color. Chien's illustrations are appropriately vibrant and allow for the different interpretations that the text suggests. This idea of colors and the associations youngsters have about them is an interesting subject and would make for some great writing activities. How do you feel when you see red? How about violet or orange? Having children compare their notions of the same colors would make for some great conversations. This child knows her own mind and feelings and isn't about to have someone else's associations color her world. Use the story with Emma Dodd's Dog's Colorful Day (Dutton, 2001), Roseanne Thong's Red Is a Dragon (Chronicle, 2001), Ellen Stoll Walsh's Mouse Paint (Houghton Harcourt, 1989), and Jane Brocket's Ruby, Violet, Lime (Millbrook, 2012) to further explore color with children.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

School Library Journal

A little girl's contrarian views about the emotional significance of various colors permit her to explore her individuality among family and friends. " ‘Yellow is cheery,' says my mom. / ‘Like the summer sun.' / But my yellow is worried / Like a wilting flower / And a butterfly caught in a net." Her best friend loves pink: "It's pretty, like a ballerina's tutu." Pink can be annoying, however, like a bug bite and gum on a shoe. Chien's acrylic double-page spread shows four pink-clad dancers in a studio, with our narrator troubled both by flying pests and, yes, gum stretching from her slipper's sole. Young's plainly delivered, poetic text achieves a subtly conspiratorial tone, as the little girl establishes the specialness of brown chocolate syrup and gray's "curled-up kitten" coziness. Some of the metaphorical musings seem too adult for a child narrator and might elude young children, especially since Chien illustrates some and ignores others. (That captured butterfly, for example, never appears, and a prowling orange tiger seems to confront the narrator directly.) Her rich but controlled palette and simply drawn faces evoke a bit of Brian Karas' work. An uneven but interesting meditation on the resonance of color, for classroom or family sharing. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews