What Can Colors Do?

by Liz Yohlin Baill

Overview

There's a rainbow of ways to think about colors. Colors pop and shine. Cool colors make us shiver, while warm colors heat us up. They can even express our moods, from feeling blue to being tickled pink. What Can Colors Do? introduces children to color through vibrant artworks that inspire curiosity, joy, and surprise in young learners.

Colorful paintings, sculptures, and objects from the Philadelphia Museum of Art help children think about how artists use color. How can colors express feelings? Can a color be loud or soft? As children learn the basics of color theory, from mixing to contrast and color wheels, they answer engaging, thoughtful questions that bring the world of art and their own experiences together. A series of activities for kids to complete on their own—from a scavenger hunt to a color-inspired way to meditate—helps them to appreciate the beauty and complexity of the hues around us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616899660
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Series:	Explore Art Series
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	737,084
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Liz Yohlin Baill is Collections Interpreter for Youth and Families at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has held positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Chicago History Museum and has developed award-winning content for kid-friendly audio guides, exhibitions, and more.

Editorial Reviews

""As the Collections Interpreter for Youth and Families at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Liz Yohlin Baill is particularly well suited to write a picture book about how vibrant works of art help us discover how artists use color to help us see and think in new ways. This fun book is best for preschoolers and early elementary children!"
– Book Riot,

"

From the Publisher

2021-03-17
Fine-arts masterpieces presented to showcase properties and possibilities of color.

Reproductions shine on the page, though no titles or artist credits appear until the backmatter. František Kupka’s Disks of Newton is a colorful explosion; Jasper Johns’ Nines combines simplicity with nuance in a three-primary design. However, Baill’s definitions and explanations sink the project. Peter Paone’s Someone’s Topiary and Victor Gabriel Gilbert’s Poppies in a Field both effectively demonstrate exciting ways that red and green can offset and enhance each other, but the crucial term complementary is missing, as are the other two complementary pairs (yellow/purple, orange/blue). Displaying silver and gold, the text claims that “shimmery shades that are perfectly polished are called metallic”—but any hue can shimmer, depending on material and light; those two are metallic because they’re metal, not because they’re shiny. The explanation that two primaries mix to make each secondary receives a mere Venn diagram as demonstration. Two reddish-brown goldfish by Roy Lichtenstein are nowhere near a primary red but are absurdly called “rosy” and “primary.” Minuscule print and thumbnails arranged in columns (not rows) in the backmatter demand extra effort to identify the works. A stumbling author’s note mentions the Black Lives Matter movement because “privilege and injustice [are] inherent in skin color,” the word inherent implying that racial justice is impossible and that racism’s caused by literal hue.

Little eyes will like the stimulating visuals. Skip the words. (project ideas, works cited) (Informational picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews