A Patch of Blue

by Elizabeth Kata

A blind young woman momentarily escapes the sordid world of her prostitute mother when a young Black befriends her in the park.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Romance, Young Adult, Novels, Book Club, Literary Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Elizabeth Katayama (1912 – 4 September 1998) was an Australian writer under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kata, best known for Be Ready with Bells and Drums (1961), which was made into the award-winning film A Patch of Blue (1965).

She was born of Scottish parents in Sydney in 1912. After marrying a Japanese man named Katayama in 1937, she lived for ten years in Japan. During the last years of World War II she was interned at the mountain resort village of Karuizawa, Nagano. She returned to Australia in 1947 with her baby son, battling the Australian Government for permission.

As well as writing novels, she also wrote for television and several Hollywood scripts. Her first novel, Be Ready with Bells and Drums (written in 1959, first published in 1961), was produced as the film A Patch of Blue (1965). Shelley Winters playing the role of Rose-Ann D'Arcey won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Guy Green, who directed, also adapted Kata's book and his screenplay was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award. After the success of the film, the novel was re-released as A Patch of Blue. The book was for many years included in the "school book list" both in the US and Australia. The book Mrs Katayama and Her Splash of Blue (2010, Independence Jones), covers how Elizabeth Kata's first book became the film A Patch of Blue.

Elizabeth Katayama died in Sydney in 1998.

Reviews

[Laureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

About 50 years ago, when I was in my teens, I saw a movie called "A Patch of Blue" staring a young, extremely handsome Sydney Poitier. He befriended a blind white girl. Enough said. I have loved Sydney Poitier ever since as an actor. While choosing my books on Goodreads, I decided to read some books that I have seen and liked as movies when I was young and not so interested in reading.

This novel broke my heart all over again. While reading it, I could see Sydney as if it was yesterday; that endearing half smile, the feeling emanating from his eyes. No, please understand, I am not the melodramatic type. This novel was everything the movie portrayed plus so much more. What a statement it makes about racial bigotry! This is not your usual, modern day "I hate racism" story. It is pure and unadulterated emotion building, beautifully told story of an innocent blind white girl, victim of a poverty stricken family who have survived in the only ways they know with prostitution and alcoholism a by-product. This is a must read for anyone remotely interested in this kind of story. Highly recommended.

P.S. It is only a small book, 171 pages, but every page is a treat.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
The original title of this novel “Be ready with bells and drums” was displaced when it was filmed and became “A patch of blue”. The film starred a rather young Sidney Poitier and Shelley Winters. Winters won a best supporting Oscar. The novel was written by Australian novelist Elizabeth Kata in the late 1950s. The title is from a Chinese poem and the whole is a twist on the Cinderella story with a blind protagonist.
Selina (Sleena) is eighteen. She lives with her mother Rose-Ann who is a prostitute and her grandfather Ole Pa who is an alcoholic. Sleena is blind and has been so since she was five. Her mother had thrown some acid at her father, but Sleena was hit and blinded. She now cleans the house and looks after the two adults. To earn some money she threads beads which are delivered to the home. She sometimes spends her days in the park and there she meets Gordon, a young man who is kind to her. They fall in love. The twist is that Gordon is black. Not difficult to guess with Sidney Poitier starring in the film. Sleena’s family and her acquaintances are racist and she isn’t initially aware of Gordon’s colour. Added to this her mother has plans to set up in a flat with a fellow prostitute and make Sleena become a sex worker as well, hoping her disability will add a premium to what they can charge. So the stage is set. The film has a more positive ending than the book. I have the old penguin copy with a cover drawing by John Ward.
On the whole I did enjoy this. I’ve never (to my recollection) seen the film. It is a little melodramatic and Kata has created a very memorable evil character in Rose-Ann. It’s a quick read and a bit of a period piece but the themes are enduring.

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and 1/2 stars

Sleena (or Selina) remembers the color Blue from the sky which she gazed at for hours on end up until the event which took colors from her life. She knows Red too. It is the color of the man's blood; the man slashed by her father, Harry's knife when he caught him with her mother, Rose-Ann. The only other color Sleena knows is Black, which is the color of her world now, blinded as she was left when Rose-Ann attempted to throw acid at Harry and missed. Instead, the acid left her daughter blind at 5-years-old, her eyes so damaged she is unable even to cry. Sleena sees Black all day, every day and she hates Black. It is easier to hate a color than the mother she has to live with or the father away somewhere in prison for murder.

This is the story of one of the most dysfunctional families you can imagine for its time period, the 1960's. Even today, it would be hard to imagine a worse environment for a child to grow up in.

I read this back in 2004 and can easily imagine the actor, Sidney Poitier as Gordon, the idealistic young man who wants to rescue Sleena/Selina from her hideous environment. The reader knows it is a tragedy, with no possibility of a truly happy ending, yet for the brief gasp of a moment, the shared hopefulness between Gordon and Sleena is still bittersweet. And yet we read on waiting and wondering ... only where, when and how Selina will discover that her knight in shining armor is the one color she despises, the only color she cannot escape due to her blindness.

Not a Great Book, but a memorable one.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sleena, you blind tomato!" Who could ever forget Selena's evil mother and feckless grandfather drunk and berating her? Though now I can't remember if she was actually the mother or aunt. This is a remarkable story of a young blind woman (blinded in a horrible accident) kept sheltered by her ignorant, and yes, evil, guardians. Selena, finally allowed by her keepers to be escorted to a park to do bead work (her occupation)meets a young black doctor. When he figures out the reality of Selena's situation, he becomes determined to save her. This takes place in the early 1960's, and all that that implies regarding racism and perception. An excruciating but wonderful book, and an even better movie.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glace, I hated this book. It did not hold my interest at all, and I did not appreciate the way my freshman english teacher shoved it down my throat. Every word was digested by force. I held no pity, nor passion for Selena or Gordon. The mother and the aunt bored me. And, I couldn't care less about Oh Mr. Faber. It bothered me quite a bit that many of my fellow classmates couldn't read aloud as fast as I, because I just wanted to finish the book, complete the review, pass the test and move on to something else. Something exciting, something captivating, something bigger than a patch and a different color than blue.

For many years I cursed the day Mrs. Howie slapped that book down on my desk and told me to start reading. I grumbled, hemmed and hawed, scoffed and rolled my eyes. But, I read it. And, for what's more?

I grew up. A lot of that proclaimed hatred and hubbubing was me being childish and spiteful, throwing a fit because I didn't want to read what I was told. I find myself thinking about this book from time to time, about how the world has come a long way since the life and times of Gordon, Selena and Pearl. About how different their lives would be if they met in today's society, if they'd had more than a patch to grow on.

All in all, this is by far not my favorite book, but one that will forever keep me reflecting on life and the connections that make and break us, how the world sees us, and most importantly, how we see ourselves.

Thanks, Mrs. Howie.

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Manipulative melodrama. Kata piles on the hardships: prostitute mother, a murderer for a father, alcoholic grandfather, abuse, rape at the hands of one of her mother's clients, poverty, isolation, boring work, constant insults, the prospect of being forced into prostitution with men who get off on having sex with a blind girl. Did I mention she's blind? But she's untouched by all the sordid reality of her life. Because she's pure in heart. We know she's pure in heart because she's blind. And blond. And beautiful (except for her eyes burned out with acid thrown by her mother who was really aiming at the father who'd just murdered a client in a jealous rage. But beautiful even with burned-out eyes. Apparently the acid missed the rest of her face). And if she's blind and blond and beautiful, she's got to be pure. And so she says purehearted things like this: ""After my prayer I stopped worrying and fell asleep." (She learned about God by listening to the radio; she's just naturally open to God because the pure at heart always are). And the big revelation about Gordon is telegraphed so unrelentingly that you'd have to be as stupid as the prostitute mother not to see it coming almost as soon as the character shows up.

[Christy Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my God.

Tears. Tears.

Kata is an amazing writer and I will be mourning this book until I die or get amnesia.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this at fourteen, I think, and absolutely loved it. Of course, at that age, I loved everything I read! I'm much more cynical now.

It's the story of a very poor, abused, blind girl and her first love. I wish the goodreads synopsis (and book cover!) didn't reveal any more than that, because the late revelation had such an impact on me. I would want other teenage girls to read the book in just the same way. (Yes, I know it was made into a rather famous movie).

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why I enjoy them so much, but this was another one of those "painful to read" books that I enjoy so much! It's so sadly realistic. People really feel and act that way.

[Neil Schleifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great character study of a young blind girl being raised by her abusive mother and alcoholic grandfather in the 1960's and how one man can make a difference in the life of someone else.

This is the source material of an equally wonderful film. The book is told from the perspective of "Sleena" (that's how her drunken guardian's pronounce her name -- Selina", an 18 y/o girl who was blinded by her mother in a domestic abuse incident when she was 8. Kata captures Sleena's voice beautifully -- resigned, tentatively hopeful and sometimes reflective of the ugly bigoted language she hears spewing from her family.

Warning: there is "hate" language used in the story, so if this book is used with young readers it is essential to let them know that the language is reflective of a certain type of character at a specific time and place.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading "A Patch of Blue", I didnt like it very much. But slowly it started to grow on me. The story takes place in an un-named big city in a poor district. The time is also hard to tell. It does not say for sure but there is alot of open racism so I am guessing it is in the time when blacks were hated. The main character or the narrorator is a young lady at age 18. You slowly find out that she is blind and has been a majority of her life. But she still can remember what some things look like. Her real name is Selina, but you don't find that out until later in the book. The book starts out calling her 'sleena'. Sleena lives with her mother and her mothers dad or her grandfather in a small apartment. Sleena is basically the scapegoat for everything. She lives a really crummy life. Even though she is blind she is expected to do everything such as cooking, cleaning, and anything else they beg of her to do. Her mother is a prostitute that hates Sleena. She works a dirty job cleaning bathrooms, the same as her father who cleans mens bathrooms. The grandfather who is named as Ol'pa is a tired old man that drinks all of the time. Him and Rosanne (Sleenas mother) fight alot. They hate eachother and are always bickering. On top of all the work that Sleena has to do in the apartment a man named Mr. Faber, a polish imigrant with a heavy accent, brings by boxes of beads for her to string. At the end of every day Sleena is tormented and put down by her mother. Constantly saying she isnt good enough and just dumb and blind. And also getting smacked and hit for "back talk". Being couped up in an apartment all day takes its toll as one day she finally left and was brought to the park with Mr. Faber. She sat under a tree and strung her beads. One day though she met a man named Gordon. She quickly becomes good friends with him after only meeting him a couple times at the park. After meeting many times at the park they fall in love. She has visited his apartment a couple of times and has talked with him about living a better life. That is as far as I have gotten. The entire story Selina is learning about herself and that even thought she is blind she deserves to be treated like a human and have human feelings and interactions just like every body else.

[Lady Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.2 / 5

I loved this book quite profoundly...until the ending, which was depressing.

Having seen the movie first, I made comparisons. The movie adaptation is quite faithful to the book, except in the ending, which is a little more hopeful. Personally, while I can see how the ending does express a moral message as well, the movie accomplished the same feat with a much less heartbreaking ending.

If not for that minor detail, I would have given the book a full 5/5 stars, and perhaps even put it on my favourites list. This just goes to show you how an ending can ruin a book.

In this case, not all the way, but still enough to keep it from being among the books I highly regard the most.

Recommended to all (probably 13+, I'd say), especially as a study in culture, history, and racism.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the film and then found and read the novel. It was brilliant.

[Alex LB · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this short novel is a creative and engaging way to explore ideas of disability, poverty, and racism. It was often emotionally difficult to read, with the harm perpetrated against people with disabilities illustrated without sentiment or any attempts to tone it down. At other times, the writing was quite poetic. There are multiple offensive words and stereotypes utilized throughout, which are used appropriately in context, but are still upsetting to see in print. The story ended up being quite maudlin, with the story beats somewhat repetitive. I had a hard time buying into the love story aspect as well. An inventive work for its time, but useful to read more as an illustration of the thoughts and attitudes of that time period, not necessarily something that stands up to modern scrutiny.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't normally pick up love stories, but I just couldn't help myself with this one when I saw it at a book sale. I found it simple and complex at the same time. My heart goes out to the main character, Selina. There is just something about a person that has to endure a filthy lifestyle and is forced to play a part they never wanted or asked for that just gets to me. She was not made for this ("this" being a drunken household, a whore for a mother, being used and unappreciated, and being verbally and physically abused to the point of being raped by one of her mother's customers....people were never intended to be made for treatment that diminishes their inner worth.). Then she goes to the park one day and meets someone that truly sees past her scars and blindness to the value underneath the neglect. Unknowingly, she's observed by a man who sees her in a moment of vulnerability and falls in love with her humanity despite all her flaws and the complications of even hoping to establish a relationship. Yet, Gordon brings out the best in her and helps her to see what she's worth despite the consequences.

One thing I really liked was that many of her thoughts are what women think or would think in her situation. She's very innocently blunt in her speech. Very sincere. Little things like:

"I had been too happy. That's dangerous. One should never be too happy."

"And now, since I know you, I know that "friend" is the grandest, biggest and best word..."

More complicated things like:

"I never meant to say those words. The words said themselves." (in reference to saying I love you)

"I was ashamed as I had never known to be ashamed. I was--nothing. I had nothing, could do nothing--thread beads on strings, that was all. I was blind, unsightly...What had got into me? I had told a man 'I love you' and, like a dish of cold unwanted food, my love was tossed back at me. Shame!"

And sad things like when she starts to realize what had all been done to her and the true cost:

"Why couldn't it have been a man I loved--who loved me? Why had my decency, my pride as a girl, a woman, been torn so savagely by an unknown marauder? Why, why and oh why? After the day I'd just spent, why did I have to think only of these dreadful things? Was I born with a wicked heart? Was I always being punished for my born wickedness? Would it turn out that meeting--knowing, yes and loving Gordon would follow on, turn out not to be fine, clean and wonderful? Sitting under the tree, thinking over my life, I couldn't figure out how anything good, lasting good, could be for me."

The ending is what you would expect. Events, people, the world, fear, and a bunch of other stuff pull them apart. But the way it ends is not really an ending to me. It's one of those books where you can write the ending for yourself because it leaves room for the imagination to linger. Knowing how much they love each other and want each other, I think it's very probable that the hero and heroine get a second chance. There is nothing that cannot be found if sought. I think the main characters are brave enough to seek it and strong enough to maintain it.

[Adelaide Metzger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy God! This almost--ALMOST got 5 stars and beyond from me!!! Why? Why the HELL did it end that way?! I am so effing mad right now!



Okay. Regular stuff out of the way first.

I was so into this book. This was an excellent book. Every time I opened it I was completely immersed into the character of Selina. This is my first time looking through the eyes of a blind character and I was just enveloped by how she saw the world and how I, as the reader, could identify what was really happening even when Selina didn’t understand.

My first thoughts on the character of Gordon was, “Aw, that’s so sweet that he wants to help the blind girl.” And then he spontaneously started buying her gifts and it felt kind of creepy how suddenly attracted he was. And then more was revealed later on in his character and how he’d been trying to help people in unfortunate circumstances and that uneasiness went away.

What really, REALLY makes me mad is how this ended.

I went into this not really expecting too much of a difference from the movie since I had first seen the film roughly a year before reading this book. And I wasn’t too surprised because the movie followed this almost exactly along the lines of character, sequence of plot, and even dialogue. I loved it. I had a grand ole time and was really digging the drama and light at the end of the tunnel.

And then I reached the last three pages.

Oh, my god. I...I can’t even think about how terrible and sad this was. Because I was so set on the similarities the book and movie shared, I thought it was going to end the same. Right?

So EFFING WRONG!!! It was 1:30am, I was screaming at what unfolded in those last three pages and was just crushed. All that “beautiful and compassionate” love story crap was destroyed in an explosion of heartbreaking, emotional C4 leaving the hopes and tender warmth of this “love story” in smoldering flames.

There has only been one other book that has made me want to throw it against the wall and into the fire because of how infuriatingly frustrating it left me (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...). That made me MAD mad. The only reason I didn’t tear this book in two was because it left me sad mad.



I ended up flipping through the book from front to back to front again searching for an answer at what had just happened and then slumping over my bed and wallowing in the black pit of despair.

I am so divided on this book. After sleeping on it, I decided that, though my wound is still tender, I love everything that this book is and love everything about it--but me and the end...we are not on speaking terms.

I need some time.

[Allison Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

If any book should be sold without a cover image and blurb, it's this one. I initially read it back in high school, ignored the blurb on the advice of the teacher, and was surprised by the twist ending. The twist ending is the best part of the book, I feel like it's crucial to the story if the reader is as blind as Selina, the main character. Without being surprised by the end, the book is still interesting, but very depressing. That's all I'll say about it, in hopes you haven't yet read the book but will now pick it up without seeking out any other reviews.

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Are you loving me?’
‘I loved you before I spoke to you. If I’d never spoken to you, I’d never have forgotten you. Never stopped loving you. Yes, I’m loving you.’

What an equally heartwarming and heartbreaking book. I can’t say I don’t find most parts of this offensive, but I suppose it shows the nature of the culture at the time, and just how beautiful tolerance can be if it were practiced.

A main sense, taken away, can heighten so much sense that we need to be able to retain a harmonious vicinity.

[Creolecat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of the story of a young black man befriending a blind white girl and liberating her so to speak so she can experience the outside world, but this was just too depressing for me and a bit manipulative. In addition, I couldn't help thinking about Shelley Winters over-the-top performance as the mother. Like the book, I like the film, if only for the scenes with Elizabeth Hartman and Sidney Poitier. Thank goodness this book is short because I couldn't take too much more of it.

[Chrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

At first I thought this was a Young Adult novel because the first-person narrator has a very immature voice. Then I realized that she is immature in her thinking, or stunted in her mental development, because she has spent her life shut up away from society. She is blind and never even went to school. She was brought up in an abusive household and was denied even the friendship of the little girl she loved, because her little friend was black.

The 1965 film follows the book faithfully up until the end where it takes a sharp turn almost in the opposite direction of the book. On balance I prefer the film ending but I suppose either way will get the author's purpose across.

A word must be said about the sad state of the little book I got from an inter-library loan. A scruffier, meaner looking book couldn't exist. Not only is it a sickly shade of orange, and not only are its pages limp and brown, but it is missing pages 7 and 8. Adding insult to injury, someone has cut out a faded picture from an ancient VHS tape and pasted it crookedly onto the book cover.

[jagoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

ZABIJE SIE

[Sam Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 The ending. Are you kidding me dude. Shocked.

[Carolyn Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oldie (1961) but a goodie. Shockingly sad.

[Steve R]

This novel is a truly insightful and very moving exploration of racism. The use of a blind protagonist from a 'white trash' background in which random violence, alcoholism, prostitution, dire poverty and an intensely mean spirited sense of personal antagonism prevail was a masterstroke against which to depict the fragile sense of friendship between a young black man and a blind white girl.

Although I read this work (and taught it in high school) over thirty years ago, I can still vividly recall Selina's fervent desire to go to the park, Gordon's soft spoken and humorous chastisement of Selina's fancies, Rose-Ann's drunken laughter at tripping up her blind daughter, Ole Pa's overriding desire to 'get stinkin' (i.e., drunk) and Paul's desperate attempt to get Gordon to see the true depth of the foolhardiness he'd fallen into by befriending Selina.

Originally entitled Be Ready with Bells and Drums the work was made into a very good movie with Sidney Poitier.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in 1972 in English Class as required reading. I remembered it as another name and remembered a disturbing chapter that I am not sure that was in the book. I am watching the movie while having to go outside as I have curiosity as to how my memory is doing. Everything so far as how I read it.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've been obsessed with finding the title of this book for the past few weeks and finally, on amazon under 'advanced search' i found it. after all that, i decided this book deserves a review.

my background: in high school i read probably some of the most obscure books when most other high schoolers were reading '1984,' 'animal farm,' and 'lord of the flies' (none of which i have read yet). and among all of obsure books, i thought this book was the most obscure--so much so that i couldn't even remember the title.

anyway, now that i've reacquainted myself with 'a patch of blue' i remember this book having a lasting impression on me. the story is about a blind girl who lives in a verbally abusive household circa 1960s. she goes to the park and makes beads as this was her means of making some money to help the family. she is befriended by this man at the park and this friendship turns into romance. what we come to find out later is that this man is black, and the girl is white and living in the times of the civil rights movement, being in an interration relationship would be frowned upon. but being blind, she doesn't understand the difference. the main takeaway i had as a teenager reading this was the importance of tolerance.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sleena is a young girl that has been blind for years. Her disability was caused by accident, her mother accidentally spilled acid into her eyes while she was trying to defend herself from Sleena’s father. She has been blind forever since.
She lives with her mother and grandfather. She doesn’t really get along with her mother because of the fact she is always blaming Sleena for her problems.
She does not have any friends and she never gets to go out of her house. She is always working around the house and making sure everything is clean and in order.
She also works making beads to make her own money.
She had never been out of her house until one day her grandfather took her to the park. It was the best day of Sleena’s life. She could not believe how happy she was. She couldn’t see anything but just that smell of being there alone sitting under a tree made her so happy. She met a guy named Gordon, he noticed Sleena was blind and Sleena could feel how he was staring at her. They started talking and they became friends, they met everyday at the park and started to know each other.
Gordon is really kind and treats Sleena very good. Sleena is falling in love with Gordon even though she can not see how he looks like or anything.

[Theophilus (Theo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful love story. Selena, a blind girl grows up in what must be one of the most dysfunctional family there ever was. She is abused and brutalized by her mother. She grows up and finds love in Gordon, an up and coming young doctor. In this case, love is blind. She doesn't know that Gordon is black. He visits her in the park where she is dropped off by her drunken grandfather every day to string beads for a kindly merchant/neighbor to sell. Gordon takes her to his apartment and introduces her to his brother, also a successful young black man. Gordon has plans for Selena to seek shelter from her wreck of a family and to acquire an education. This never comes to pass. There is no happy ending in the book, unlike the namesake movie. This is a little-read classic story in the vein of "Strange Fruit" by Lillian Smith. Perhaps that is why it seems to so little known. It reveals a truth about us as a nation, that even if love is blind, outsiders are not and can ruin the dreams and happiness of an innocent couple. Read it. It's short and endearing.

[Jake Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Patch of Blue is a book about a blind girl named Salina whos eyes were burned by acid accidently during a fight between her mother and father. everyday is more torture for her not knowing what anything looks like other then a few colors. Red was the last color she saw as her father killed her mother's "friend". Black is the color she is forced to always have in front of her. And blue is the color of the sky which she remembers so dearly.

During the story we find that her mother is a prostitute and her grandfather was a pimp and a drunk. Salina lives her life makin beads for a man who becomes her close friend and eventually takes her to the park. There is where she met Gordden, a kind man that helps in anyway he can and she grows to like him more and more. The story continues with her mother finding out about Gorden and punishes Salina out of spite. All and all I think this was a good book, but its depressing to read.

[Katie Henning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book, because my mom gave it to me as a gift when was 9 and I've read it a bunch of times. This is a book I reflect on often and will always cherish. I still have my original copy! A Patch of Blue is story about a blind girl in the 60's, who lives with her prostitute mother and alcoholic grandfather. She meets a black man in the park and falls in love with him. She is racist, due to the times and what she has been taught by her mother and grandfather. She does not know that this man is black because she can't see him. It's ironic that the first person who shows her any real love and compassion is a black man, even though she claims black is her least favorite color since black is the only color she sees (she is blind!). This book really captures the time and teaches the lessons of tolerance and that "love is blind".