Lemons Are Not Red

by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Illustrator)

Overview

Lemons are not Red. Apples are red. Lemons are yellow. . . .

Clever cutouts in the pages make a simple, original, and utterly beguiling introduction to color.

Laura Vaccaro Seeger, whose The Hidden Alphabet dazzled critics and readers alike, introduces young children to color in this unique concept book with die cuts. The opening spread features a big, bright red lemon and the simple text, "Lemons are not RED." When the spread is turned an equally bright yellow lemon appears ("Lemons are YELLOW") across from a luscious red apple ("Apples are RED").

And so it goes, from carrots that are not purple through reindeer that are not white, et al. The book ends with "The moon is not BLACK / The moon is SILVER / The night is BLACK / Good night! And the reader sees a tranquil night landscape and a house with the lights turned out.

This title has Common Core connections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596431959
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	08/22/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	340,210
Product dimensions:	8.03(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.17(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Laura Vaccaro Seeger has been called "the queen of the concept book by The Horn Book and is the winner of many awards including two Caldecott Honors, two Geisel Honors, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Her books include The First Egg, One Boy, Green, and the Dog and Bear series.

Editorial Reviews

This creatively designed volume combines an introduction to colors with a bedtime story” —Booklist

“Vaccaro once more delivers a compositionally faultless primer.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review


“The creator of The Hidden Alphabet (Roaring Brook, 2003) offers another visual treat.... Illustrated with richly colored yet simple oil paintings, this offering will delight preschoolers.” —School Library Journal

“The heavy paper should stand up to multiple readings and pokings.... the colors and textures are nearly edible.” —Horn Book

“Seeger has done marvelous things with her brushwork, from impasto to shimmering smoothness...Clever, imaginative, and utterly beguiling.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Cleverly designed concept book uses brilliant colors and die-cuts.” —American Library Association

“Kids will adore righting the wrongs of carrots painted purple and flamingos gone gray.” —Child Magazine Best Book of 2004

“Artfully placed and shaped die-cuts lead toddlers into an interactive world of bright colors.” —New York Public Library Best Book for Giving and Sharing, 2004

From the Publisher

Having expertly explored letters in The Hidden Alphabet, Seeger now turns her attention to colors, again using die-cuts to great effect, neatly revealing objects with correct and incorrect hues. The book begins with the title statement (the line is reused with different objects and colors throughout) on a yellow spread; a die-cut opening in a lemon shape, on the right, allows the red hue below to show through. When readers turn the page, they discover that the red shade is part of an apple, while the die-cut lemon shape, now on the left, appears in its proper yellow, from the previous spread ("Lemons are yellow/ Apples are red"). The heavy brushstrokes that Seeger applies to the backgrounds and objects add pleasingly tactile textures to the otherwise simple, cutout shapes. Other color pairs show a gray flamingo that turns its proper pink next to an elephant's profile, and blue grass (of the non-twangy variety) that becomes green next to a cloud-swept blue sky. After revealing the moon to be silver and the night to be black in the penultimate scene, the light of a die-cut window in a small country cottage goes dark as readers turn the page and the text bids them "Good night!" Vaccaro once more delivers a compositionally faultless primer. Ages 2-5. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A few words, a handful of brilliant colors and a bewitching idea will enchant the youngest of book lovers and their resident grownups, as did Seeger's Hidden Alphabet (2003). "Lemons are not RED," proclaims the text, as emphatically as any three-year-old, except that the die-cut shape of a lemon on the page appears, quite clearly, to be red. But when the page is turned, and the text "Lemons are YELLOW" appears, the die-cut shape displays the proper, enticing yellow. The following page pronounces, "Apples are RED," and displays a shapely, luscious specimen. Carrots aren't purple, flamingoes aren't gray, and grass is not blue; each cut-out displays the wrong color and then rights itself. Seeger has done marvelous things with her brushwork, from impasto to shimmering smoothness, so that the color values are emphasized by texture. Clever, imaginative, and utterly beguiling. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews