خاکستری فقط دلش میخواست مابقی رنگها او را هم میان خودشان راه بدهند. اما آنها همیشه او را کنار میگذاشتند. پس خاکستری هم تصمیم گرفت کاری بکند کارستان و کتابی بنویسید که فقطِ فقط خاکستری باشد. داستانش را اینطوری شروع کرد. یکی بود یکی نبود، یک گرگ، یک بچهگربه و یک اسب آبی در خانهٔ کوچکی کناردریا زندگی میکردند. خاکستری مطمئن بود کتابش بهترین کتاب دنیا میشود؛ اما هنوز چند صفحهای پیش نرفته بود که سروکلهٔ باقی رنگها پیدا شد و تازه ماجرای خاکستری و کتابش و دوستان رنگرنگیاش آغاز شد.
Lindsay Ward has a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. Her most recent books include It’s Show and Tell, Dexter! and Don’t Forget Dexter!, books 1 and 2 in the Dexter T. Rexter Series with Two Lions. She is also the author and illustrator of Brobarians (Two Lions, 2017), The Importance of Being 3 (Dial 2016), Rosco vs. the Baby (S&S, 2016), Henry Finds His Word (Dial, 2015), a Choose to Read Ohio Book, When Blue Met Egg (Dial, 2012), and Please Bring Balloons (Dial, 2013), which was produced into a play by the New York City Children’s Theater in 2017. Her work has been reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, and the New York Times. Lindsay is currently working on a new board book series, I Go!, with HarperCollins, due Summer 2019 and This Book Is Gray, a new picture book with Two Lions. She is the founder of Critter Lit (www.critterlit.com), a free picture book manuscript and illustration critique service for up-and-coming authors and illustrators. Lindsay lives in Peninsula, Ohio with her husband, two sons, and dog. Visit her online at www.lindsaymward.com or follow her on Twitter @lindsaymward.
This book is cute, but let me get this out of the way first. I hate the color gray. It’s sad and depressing and the color of pollution, but I do like the a grey overcast day and if you notice it makes the other colors around more cozy. The greens are a deeper green and stand out more. Gray is the new stylish color now and I don’t like it. Anyway.
I went into this book apprehensively. I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy this story. We start out with the other bright primary and secondary colors making a rainbow and leaving grey out. Grey decides to go tell his own story in all grey and the other colors butt in and there is a discussion and puns made about colors. You know I love a good pun. Finally, the other colors realize they are leaving gray out and help him feel apart of the group. All the animals that need gray like elephants and hippos are in his story.
I love that this is a meta story for kids. I love thinking meta, stories within stories and so forth. I was a fan of Stephen King putting himself in the Dark Tower Series. I thought it was brilliant. Anyway, I love how Lindsay plays with color and sneaks some color facts in as well. The characters have personality and the story works. Great book.
The nephew thought this was a cool book too. He liked the funny colors and the fact that gray was trying to tell a story and he was interrupted. He gave this 3 stars.
This may be a children's book, but I thought it was GRAYt!
And who wouldn't? It's chock full of puns and silly banter. Adults will appreciate this as much as any kid would.
No matter your age, you'll laugh with Gray and his colorful friends through every page. And maybe, just maybe, you'll learn an interesting thing or two about the personalities of colors.
What a unique way to teach a child about differences in one another, feelings associated with being different or left out, and how we can work together to be kind and understanding of others feelings.
I read this to my 4 year old and she loved the book. Going from gray to colorful rainbow, it was a fun transition per page. Instead of a traditional book with a paragraph per page, all the reading is done via the word bubbles per individual color character. It can get a little lengthy and not as easy to read in the voices since there are so many characters. I did find myself having to leave out some of the character conversation as the message became a little convoluted, hence the deduction of a star.
This is a book for children up to about nine about the "lesser known" color, gray, and why it should get its time in the spotlight.
My little kid panelists (2 to 5) found the illustrations charming but the text had to be simplified for their comprehension.
The book is short, and we will try it again in about a year to see if the result is different. Ward wants to pack in some terms that may need to be skipped for younger readers. Still, this is a charming effort to enlighten the subject.
Each year my family reads all the Goodreads-award-nominated picture books. This Book is Gray by Lindsay Ward is book #13 (of 20) for 2020. It’s a difference book, accepting all the colors, not just the most popular colors. Gray decides to create the grayest book, all-gray-all-the-time, featuring a wolf, kitten and hippo. In process, the other colors comment on the book and come to reconsider and accept and celebrate gray.
Hank (14): 4 stars. The story is good!
Harry (15): 3.5 stars. Being different is cool! Every color can live in harmony with all the other colors
Tara: 4 stars. Kind of cute.
Dave: 3.5 stars. Nothing original to see or read here, but the thing that sets this apart this year is that there is the slightest snarky humor; for instance, another color, reading the draft asks, “Is the wolf going to eat the kitten? Because that’s where I feel this is going. . .” Another view of the gray book: “. . . a monochromatic disaster.” Has a “for-hipster-parents” audience feel as much as teaching about tolerance and colors, but the art is well done.
Review of Kindle edition Publication date: December 1, 2019 Publisher: Two Lions Language: English ASIN: B07MQR7B5V
I downloaded this book through the Amazon First Reads Program for our daughter. We sat down and read the book together. She complained that the print in the Kindle edition is too small on my 7" screen. Perhaps this book would look much better with a larger screen. She enjoyed the story but was not excited about it. She seemed to enjoy our discussion more than the actual reading.
This is a pretty basic story about how leaving someone out of activities is hurtful. It also teaches that all have something to contribute. Very early in life I was fortunate enough to work with a wide variety of people with different levels of education and ability. I was taught to treat everyone with respect. By the time I began my adult career it was almost a mantra with me that everyone I met knew something or how to do something which I didn't. This book reinforces teaching that philosophy to our daughter and fits in with the second greatest commandment - Love your neighbor as yourself.
Pienso que puede llegar a confundir a los niños, pues al principio te presenta tres personajes principales que se muestran forzadamente a lo largo de la historia, pues, todo es entorno años colores.
Gray has decided to create his own Gray Book because he is always feeling left out. The other colors have a lot to say about that idea. This is a clever, cheerful story that fans of THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT will love. This book plays with colors and color concepts and it also addresses feelings about being left out - something everyone has felt at one time or another. A fun, character filled comedy with plenty of heart.
بهنظرم اول از همه این کتاب رو والدینی باید بخونن که به بچههاشون اجازه نمیدن با رنگ مشکی و خاکستری نقاشی بکشن. این کتاب به بیان راحتی توضیح داده که خاکستری هم یک رنگی شبیه بقیه رنگهاست. در ادامه، برای بچهها هم کتاب خوبیه. هم کمک میکنه که رنگها رو بهتر بشناسن و ازش استفاده کنن و هم داستان و تصویرسازی جالبی داره.
Cute book about the color gray wanting to create its own story. All the other colors (rudely) butt in saying it's impossible without a primary color. It turns into a story within the story where the crayons are giving their input while Gray keeps trying to work on their story. In the end, there is a great balance of color and the characters Gray creates get their happy ending too!
I love it when a character throws a tantrum. Gray wants a book featuring him - the grayest book ever. Gets off to a good start with a wolf, a kitten and a hippo. Then those bright sparks arrive on the scene and decide to take over the story and give it some colour.
Great puns, witty text and ongoing jokes. Good book for discussing inclusion and also the colour wheel.
"Gray just wants to be included. But the other colors are always leaving him out. So he decides to create his own project: an all-gray book. Once upon a time, there lived a wolf, a kitten, and a hippo… Gray just knows it’s going to be perfect. But as he adds page after page, the Primary and Secondary colors show up…and they aren’t quite so complimentary."
UPDATE 11/1/20: Annual Goodreads Choice Awards reading project: Read all the Picture Book nominees! (1 of 15 - This is the only one I read before the award announcement.)
I liked the concept -- gray is a color too and deserves its own book! (Or at least one other than Fifty Shades of Gray?) -- but the creator didn't seem to trust in it herself, beginning with the two spots of pink on the main character's face. The conflict introduced with the arrival of the primary colors was actually fun, but a second wave of secondary colors added too much color to the book, and a third wave with black and white was starkly useless.
Again, for those who like a bit of darkness in their kiddie lit, there is a story within the story about a kitten who perhaps should not be hanging out with a hungry wolf and hippo that provides the only laughs in the book.
Ward seamlessly includes some complex color vocabulary including primary, secondary, and achromatic, but the story is ultimately muddled by "friends" that borderline as bullies. When these persistent colors talk over and ignore Gray's desire to have one book to himself, they eventually come around to listening to him--by finally including Gray in their artwork. The badgering and "too cool" quality of the colors makes it hard to see them as the good guys in the end, especially since they still cannot let Gray have one thing to himself. Great concept, great artwork, unlikable characters.
This book says it's about gray, but it veers quickly away from the charming premise into psychobabble and a reversal of the premise. If you want abook about valuing the unnoticed potential of individuals who get overlooked, look elsewhere. Thus isn't that book. There's very little in this book about gray and it's value.
Gray is a depressing color, rarely signifying anything good. Gray sky, gray snow, gray skin, gray mood. This book is about a color who wants to be included, despite every other color trying to convince him that nobody likes him and he doesn't belong.
I could see where Gray had a point. My eyes weren't used to looking at gray illustrations. Everything looked strange, probably because artists avoid gray in their art. It's a complicated color with many shades. After reading this book, I still don't like the color gray, but now I know it's because artists haven't shown me how to appreciate it.
My love of Amazon first pics is best expressed in my ever growing collection of digital picture books. I know that you are eye rolling because I could use my monthly free book to get an adult book, but I have yet to be disappointed by the kiddie lit that I have tucked in my phone for my adorable nieces and nephews. This one is a cute color wheel of fun, and you have to love any book that tells you to love yourelf for who you are! A fun romp that was nephew and auntie approved!
Cute and Enjoyable But Massively Misses Target Demographic
I am so confused and conflicted because I both enjoyed parts of this book and felt like it completely failed in its mission. As an adult, I appreciated the sarcastic humour and liked the art for being cute. However, I don't believe children will understand this type of story or even be able to grasp the underlying message. I'm not even sure I can grasp the message myself, seeing how far it deviates from what's promised.
This isn't actually a book within a book; it's a book about anthropomorphized colours gathering around while one of their peers attempts to illustrate a story. By the end, the creating character doesn't even properly end his tale - which is more of a madlib filled in while arguing over artistic direction than a real story. And while this appears at first to be a cute story about how Gray is unappreciated and lonely and wants to show the value of his own talents, it quickly devolves into him being bullied by the other colours. Ultimately, one ruins the story he's trying to tell by vandalizing it with their own colour and the others decide that the only way to fix the ruins of Gray's project is to colour it. Yep, his personal project meant to be about him gets vandalized and then the people who were bullying him insert their own personal tastes while claiming to help him fix the damage.
The message is confusing and vague. Is it about self worth? If so, it fails. Is it about acceptance? If so, it handles the matter entirely wrong. Acceptance isn't forcing others to assimilate to your own preferences. I just don't get it. Worse, most of the language used feels more suitable for middle grade readers despite being a picture book. I can't see a child understanding or enjoying this and I can't see a preteen wanting to read it.
Overall, I do think it's cute and I did like it but I wouldn't recommend this book for children. Maybe if the moral didn't get warped into how you can be happier from acceptance into a group which has been mistreating you, I'd say it's worth trying. But as is, I just can't say it's good for kids.
Note: I had trouble reading the Kindle edition of this book. Though you can double-tap text to get a larger version, it's imperfect. For example, once enabled, it continually zooms the text - including one instance where it zoomed one bubble on top of another and hid the text from the bottom one. There's also no pinch-zoom option, which meant I basicslly had to stick my nose to my phone to read this book. Not exactly a pleasant experience, and I'm even using a large phone! I dread to imagine how uncomfortable it is for people with smaller devices.
This book actually had me laughing out loud at all the puns and word play. A fantastic book for children to learn all about their colors. I liked it so much, I bought the hard copy. :D
4.5 - 4.75 stars. Can gray create a story on his own, is there enough gray in the world for him to carry his own story? Find out in this entertaining story about the color gray. What a fun way to teach students about primary, secondary, and achromatic colors, highly recommended!
I picked up an ARC at ALA and have enjoyed this alongside my six-year-old. We've added 'achromatic' to our vocabulary. And now I see all things gray....if I could attach a photo, I'd share proof.
This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!
Hello, friends! We’re back! The Baby Bookworm has moved houses, and we’re all set up in our new reading corner (though Mr. Dinosaur is still in a box somewhere, so he is still on hiatus). Our book today is This Book Is Gray by Lindsay Ward, a tale of individuality.
As the primary and secondary colors work together to build a colorful rainbow, Gray watches with envy. There’s no gray in the rainbow, after all, and he’s feeling left out. So Gray decides to make his own book, one with nothing but gray: a gray house on a foggy, overcast beach, and starring a cast of a wolf, a kitten, and a hippo. But just as he’s getting started, the primary colors burst in, followed closely by the secondaries, and begin picking apart Gray’s work. They declare the illustrations dismal, dark, and gloomy, and question whether the story will be a dark or sad one because of its look. Gray defends his work, but the others just keep talking over him. At last, his patience is lost; he yells at his friends, expressing his frustration and feelings of exclusion. The other colors, even fellow achromatics White and Black, are stunned, and decide to make Gray see that he is valued just as he is.
I liked the premise of this book a lot; any book that explores the values of different talents or aptitudes sends an important message to little readers. However, this left me with mixed feelings about the ending. Eventually, all the colors chip in on Gray’s book, “enhancing” his “GRAYtest book ever” with their own hues. But wait… wasn’t the point that Gray wanted a book that showcased gray all on its own? Without needing bright colors to have a happy or positive story? By adding the other colors to the mix, the lesson gets muddled; while the message about teamwork is admirable, it doesn’t mesh well with the earlier themes of individuality, and I was disappointed that Gray wasn’t allowed to be celebrated on his own merits. Still, JJ enjoyed the illustrations and the conversational text, especially each color’s distinct voice, and the length was fine. Rough around the edges, yet visually fun and worth a read. Baby Bookworm approved!
(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by a representative of the author in exchange for an honest review.)
This book was GRAYt! All gray wants is his own story as he is never used whereas the other colours are always used. The other colours interfere and try and put themselves in the story, but gray stands up for himself in the end. This book allows readers to see how gray can look nice and be a beautiful colour and will help them to appreciate it.
I think children would really enjoy this book and that it would encourage children to think about using the colour gray in more of their drawings.