Review: Good lesson for us plain folks!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2014
I like the simplicity of the storyline and the illustrations. It has many "colorful" characters, and that is Plain Jane's problem--she doesn't have color! The other children she meets are red, or purple with white spots, or green with red lines, or flowered and arrowed.Striking contrast to "plain" Jane. But there's one suggestion I'd make. I wouldn't describe the children as "colored." That word has connotations in the U.S.A. that I think the author didn't want to imply. Rather, use "colorful." "They were colored folks" would work much better as "They were colorful folks."The combination of these colorful folks with the colors of the Fourth of July celebration and picnic helps the characters, and us, realize that at heart we are the same, no matter how we look on the outside. A good read for children up to 8 or so years old.