The Color Box
PreSchool-Grade 1-- A monkey named Alexander crawls into a box. ``It was black, /Black everywhere-- / Everywhere he : looked. / Only one spot / Was not.'' This ``spot'' is a hole in the page, revealing a bit of the all-yellow world the curious chimp discovers after he climbs through. He then finds an orange cut-out and continues to discover various new colors. Finally he reaches white, discovers a movable flap door, and steps through to find ``. . . a world . . . of color'' in the zoo where he lives. Laroche's cut-paper collages work perfectly, lending the box the needed three-dimensional effect. The layers and shadows effectively distinguish and set off the various shades of the objects. The smooth text is patterned and predictable, but varied enough to remain lively. The spots change in location, size, and shape to sustain interest and keep children guessing. Sure to please both in story time and one-on-one, The Color Box is an entertaining and original concept book. --Steven Engelfried, Pleasanton Library, CACopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.