What Color Is Night?

by Grant Snider

Overview

Look closer. Grant Snider's beautiful debut picture book explores the wonders—and colors—of nighttime. For night is not just black and white. Ending in colors yet unseen, and a night of sweet dreams, this lilting lullaby is sure to comfort those drifting off to sleep. With luminous art as spare and glowing as the moon, and lyrical text that reads like a friend leading the way through the wilderness, What Color Is Night? is a rich and timeless look at a topic of endless fascination, and a perfect bedtime read-aloud.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452179926
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Pages:	44
Sales rank:	48,738
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD310L (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 4 Years

About the Author

Grant Snider is an orthodontist by day and an author and artist of comics and picture books by night. He lives in Wichita, Kansas.

Editorial Reviews

Snider's thick and loose ink lines, filled in with digital color, create a saturated and dreamy nighttime effect…He clearly understands the promise that lies on the other side of sunset.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

"If you think the night is black, think again. Snider's elegant nocturnal idyll explores the many colors visible to those who 'look closer.' [What Color is Night?] will have young readers hoping to stay up for a glimpse of 'colors unseen.'" — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

11/15/2019

PreS-Gr 2—This book asks readers to take a moment and think about what colors they see in the night? Is everything just black and white? Snider helps children (and adults) look beyond the darkness and see the beautiful colors that appear in the night. Some of the hues are natural like the golden glow of fireflies, a still blue pond, and the green-eyed radiance of nighttime animals. Others might be man-made (red neon signs, car lights, even cereal!), they still add color to the night. The graphic style illustrations have a deep saturated matte background, which makes the other colors rich and vivid. The text takes the form of a sweet lullaby that will soothe little ones to sleep. Older children might become curious and eager to stay up and explore the many colors of the night. Just as It Looked Like Spilt Milk opened the door for multiple teaching opportunities, so does this book. It brings in the science of nocturnal animals, astronomy, and space exploration. Children can learn more about famous artists such as Vincent van Gogh and his infamous The Starry Night. VERDICT This simple picture book opens children's eyes and minds to things they don't often think about and offers endless possibilities for exploration.—Barbara Spiri, Southborough Library, MA

School Library Journal

2019-09-29
If you think the night is black, think again.

Snider's elegant nocturnal idyll explores the many colors visible to those who "look closer." The dark blue sky, "a big yellow moon beginning to rise," the glow of red neon in the city and of faraway yellow headlights in the country, the glowing green eyes of raccoons on the prowl—it turns out the night is fairly pulsing with colors. Thick ink outlines rooftops, sinuous tree branches, skyscrapers, moths, and more; the appropriately nighttime palette will have eyes straining a bit to see dark-gray outlines against dark-blue sky and black foreground shapes. For all that his shapes are simplified, at times even childlike in their line, the effect is startlingly realistic. The sky above the neon-lit city glows murky orange from the light below; in contrast, "a thousand silver stars spilled across the sky" are crystalline white against the navy-blue vastness above a quiet farm. Text is set primarily in gray and white against dark backgrounds, a large-font serif type ensuring legibility. The stately text and stillness of the images give the book a solemn air that is leavened with, first, "a midnight snack" of Lucky Charms and then a dream balloon flight that takes a brown-skinned child with long puffy hair over a sea of "pink and purple clouds."

This will have young readers hoping to stay up for a glimpse of "colors unseen." (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

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