Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color: An Exuberant Picture Book About Color and Passion for Kids

by Julia Denos

A vibrant picture book featuring an irrepressible new character—perfect for fans of The Dot and Beautiful Oops!— from acclaimed illustrator Julia Denos.  In a place where color ran wild, there lived a girl who was wilder still. Her name was Swatch, and color was her passion. From brave green to in-between gray to rumble-tumble pink . . . Swatch wanted to collect them all. But colors don’t always like to be tamed. . . . This is an exuberant celebration of all the beauty and color that make up our lives.

Genres: Picture Books, Art, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Julia Denos earned a BFA in illustration from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She lives outside of Boston.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this a while ago based on seeing a lot of really great reviews, and while there is a lot to love, I'm really not comfortable with the instances in which the girl looks to have a cutesy stereotypical headband and warpaint. I teach Native American kids - this book won't be going into my classroom.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia Denos puts on one spectacular color show! Vivid colors spring, swoosh and whirl around this book. From spatters to splashes! The colors soar off the pages and into the room with you as you read. I’ve never seen color used quite this way before. It’s wild!

”Rumble-Tumble Pink rolled through the sky on the heels of outgoing thunderstorms.”

The colors redefine themselves! They move on the page in shapes, shades, and personality. Every color pops to life with a story of its own. Yellow’s unsettling mood on the page didn’t sit right with me, but to be honest yellow is my least favorite color. Soooo…that could have been just me. :) As the huge streaks, strokes, and swirls of color claim the glossy white pages as their own, I couldn’t help wondering if colors really can be tamed. Should they be?

Swatch is a masterpiece you have to see!

Open this book. Let the colors out! ! I dabbled in paints, chalks, and crayons for days after meeting Swatch, the color tamer.

Find this book and read it!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good books about colours and why we shouldn't keep them in jars. The illustrations are beautiful.

[Caitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always love Julia Denos. Her illustrations are full of life, and this book is no different. However, I really wish that the character wasn't wearing a headband across her forehead and colored stripes on her cheeks. Felt too much like the current hipster appropriation of Native American imagery that's running rampant.

[Michele Knott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful picture book - one I need to own!
Great for theme and lessons learned.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swatch loved her colors and when she tried to tangle the yellow, she was quite surprised to what came next...

[Laura Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I love Julia Denos. Beautiful and unique picture book.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the illustrations in this book! Every page is filled to the brim with swirls of vivid colors. I read this during toddler storytime, and on each page I would point to different colors and asked them what colors there were. Afterwards, we did a fun process art activity with bleeding tissue paper, cardstock, and water. I got the idea from here: https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.c...

Instead of using spray bottles, we used medical droppers (the youth services closet in my library is awesome... haha). The kids practiced squeezing water onto the bleeding tissue paper to make swirls of color, just like in Swatch.

[Brandi Kutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

IL: LG - BL: 3.0 - AR Pts: 0.5

I loved the illustrations! So much color and such an interesting story. Swatch is basically a color-bender. And she loves every color from Bravest Green to In-Between Gray to Rumble-Tumble Pink. But sometimes colors don't exactly want to be tamed.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and nice personification.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a riot of color. Kids who love to paint BOLDLY will get a kick out of this one.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5

[Margaret]

As an educator you are entirely focused with heart, soul and mind every single day of the school year. You are also thinking at the same time of the next year; how you can do things better and what you will need to do to be better. By the time your classroom is closed for the summer, you are up to your eyebrows in plans for the upcoming year.

While not a top priority but still necessary is gathering materials for all your hands-on projects. Elementary students really enjoy using crayons. A huge bag, growing bigger by the year, with well-loved stubs of color is a testament to this fact. They love being the first one to open a new box of crayons with sharp points and the cardboard stiff from the lack of being used. (I have to admit to feeling the same way.)

It's as if you are opening a door to a world full of possibilities. As teachers and parents know, a blank surface is an invitation to a child with a box of crayons. Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color (Balzar + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, March 15, 2016) written and illustrated by Julia Denos is about a girl who embraces the various hues she sees everywhere every single day.


My full recommendation: http://librariansquest.blogspot.com/2...

[Courtney Huskisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holey-moley! This book is an incredible work of art. Literally breathtaking; at one particular page-turn I audibly gasped. I realize it's only May - but this is my contender for the Caldecott. Hands-down.

Swatch--the color-tamer--is a girl equally as wild as the colors she chases. Each color is it's own unique character with it's own unique personality. And swatch learns that colors with their own unique personality must be allowed to take their own course. The vibrancy of this book explodes off the page and each page is it's own work of art.

I heard about this book on the "All The Wonders" podcast. I was skeptical but curious - as I so often am. But I learned the story behind this work is just as beautiful as the story itself. Julia Denos has caught my attention and highest respect with this beautiful work.

This is a must-read and a must-buy for your personal library.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denos, Julia Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color unpaged. Blazer + Blay (HarperCollins), 2016. $17.99. PICTURE BOOK

Swatch is a girl who tames colors in a world where colors run wild. She can train them and hunt down even the most rare ones. When she starts to collect them in jars, one wild color helps her remember that colors are not meant to live like that.

The splashed and swirled colors in this book's illustrations dance right off the page and into your imagination. It is a beautiful love letter to the power of color, as well as an extended metaphor for how creativity needs freedom to thrive. It would be a great addition to any library.

EL - ESSENTIAL. Reviewed by P.K.Foster, teacher- librarian
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely wonderful! I love it. This beautiful picture book takes us into the world of Swatch, an amazing little girl who is a color tamer: "She was small, but she was not afraid." She runs, dances, and performs magic with the wildest shades. She spends much of her time hunting the rarest colors. And while she loved the colors and they loved her back, could they be truly magnificent if they were tamed and kept in jars? The illustrations are breathtaking. I think this book would be an awesome companion to "My Blue Is Happy" by Jessica Young.

[Alicia Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took this book out to my daycare storytimes this month and it was the most captivating book ever! The kids loved the bright colors as well as the excitement and wonder. It also never got boring for me to read, which is a mark of a good picture book in my opinion. I highly recommend this one.

For: storytimes about color and imagination; whimsical readers.

Possible red flags: Yellowest Yellow could potentially be scary to some young readers with his sharp teeth and ferocious roar.

[Carol Mccoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love color! This book is about a little girl's search for colors that she then places in jars to keep for herself. However, when she meets "Yellow" she discovers the true nature of colors and everything changes! This book would be a great gift for a budding artist or anyone who loves color as much as I do :-)

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colleague asked me just yesterday for resources that demonstrate personification. Here you go -- colors as sentient beings (and a fun girl character who learns a good lesson about not trying to tame what's wild)!

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something about this one that I loved.

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved how swatch learned to be respectful of the colors! great starting point for parents to discuss considering the feeling of pets and friends while not tamping down a child's unbridled passion.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

I used this book as a read-aloud for two small groups of mixed-age elementary students and for kindergarten classes. The art is beautiful, especially the final pages with yellow and then all the freed colors. However, there are a couple things that didn't quite sit well with me. Why is Swatch described as a wild girl who then proceeds to catch and trap colors? Wouldn't she appreciate the need for colors to be free? I did appreciate showing the thought process of Swatch realizing that the colors she captures may not necessarily WANT to be contained.

Students enjoyed looking at the page of Swatch's room with all her colors to see what one she was missing. We practiced naming all the colors we could see and finding them on the page. Before we know if Yellow is going to eat Swatch there is some tension, but it's resolved on the very next page, so any worries are resolved quickly. I encouraged students to make predictions about what they thought Yellow and Swatch would do.

Overall though, not my favorite read. Beautiful colors, but students just weren't that engaged. I think it may have been that some of the language used to describe the colors was above their comprehension and the kindergarteners didn't quite have the ability to use context clues to define unfamiliar words.

After we read we had fun with the coloring pages from the author's website where there are a few black and white pages from the book. Students enjoyed filling them with their favorite colors and deciding what Swatch might want to capture next.

[Baby Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!

Hello, friends! Our book today is Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color/ by Julia Denos, the story of a color whisperer learning a lesson about the importance of freedom.

Swatch is a little girl who loves colors, and the colors love her right back. They bend and twist and dance around her, and she wrangles them with her sweet demeanor and wild energy. She hunts the most vivid shades when she can: Bravest Green only appears in the first week of March, and In-Between Gray resides on her kitten’s leg. The colors come and go freely, until Swatch decides to capture Just-Laid Blue in a jar. She begins to collect all her colors in jars, and while they still love Swatch, they begin to grow restless without room to roam and dance as they once did. At last, Swatch hunts down Yellowest Yellow, the first color to ask what she intends on doing. When Swatch describes life in a jar, Yellow politely declines – that’s no life for it. Swatch understands, and watches as Yellow grows and twists into a giant, magical beast and Swatch, realizing her mistake, calls to her colors to free themselves from their jars and fly free once again.

Charming and magical. Swatch and her colors explode from each page with bright, joyous energy, creating a modern fairytale world that feels like a window into a child’s imagination. And while the art pulls plenty of focus, the text holds its own with a sure, whimsical yet exhilarating storyline. And the lesson is timeless: to love something is to let it be free to be itself. JJ went wild for the art, and the length was just right. A lovely fable for any fan of color, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved!

Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. "In a place where colors ran wild, there l ived a girl who was wilder still" begins this boldly colorful watercolor illustrationed picture book. Swatch is a girl who was a "color tamer" who tamed colors to run wild, dance, and do magic. She hunts down colors and put them in jars. She has a room bursting with jars and color. This reminded me of "In the Jar" with capturing special moments and memories in jars. But towards the end she wants to have the "yellowest yellow." Boy is it wild and she becomes afraid that it will eat her! This is not the case of course, they adventure together and then all the colors in a beautiful masterpiece of colors. I wasn't drawn to this book from the cover personally or the title necessarily but the store is nice and the illustrations are wonderful. Kids will enjoy the burst of color. Would be a good read aloud for preschoolers with storytime extensions done with watercolor painting or even something with jars.

[Phoenix Hamblin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a little girl name swatch who loves to collect celebrate all the colors she find in the world. She is considered a color tamer and she takes the colors to be kept and used in art. She tames many beautiful colors including the color rumble-tumble pink which gives her a big hug shown in the beautiful illustrations. However, when Swatch tries to tame the color yellow, it refuses and shows how large and magnificent it is as a roaring lion. Yellow shows Swatch how beautiful color can be when it is set free in the world, and the rest of Swatch's colors follow and lift her through the sky, and they create a masterpiece. This book could be used for grades 3-5 in an art classroom to spark students interest in paying attention to the beauty of the colors around them. The illustrations in this book are very colorful and whimsical. I had to read a couple times to fully understand the text but it was very cute!

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so unique in the way it uses the concept of color! A young girl, named Swatch, has these super powers of color taming. The story follows Swatch is a journey of collecting all the colors, teaching them to dance. It feels as though these colors are Swatch’s friend. The illustrations portray a whimsical and magical aura. She collects these colors from the sky, the trees, and other forms of nature. There is personification featured as well, such as the “Yellowest Yellow”, or the dandelion, speaks to Swatch and refuses to be captured. Each color has its own kind of personality with a uniqueness in the lines, shapes, and movement. I think this book would be great to incorporate with an art lesson, focusing on expression in color. It would be appropriate for younger grades in a lesson format but is also suitable for toddlers who are learning colors. The vibrance shines within the story and illustrations.

[Charlotte S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swatch; The Girl Who Loved Color by Julia Denos.
Swatch was a girl. But not just any ordinary girl...she was a COLOR TAMER! She could make colors do all sorts of things from dancing to magic! She learned to hunt them and catch them in jars. Once she had all the colors except one, Yellowest Yellow, she sets out to find it. It asks her what she was doing. Swatch thought that was odd, and decided not to catch it. When Yellowest Yellow turns into a billowing beast, what will happen?
My mom and I LOVED this book! We got it from the library at first but loved it so much that we bought it! Julia Denos is an amazing artist and author, and if you haven't already, you should totally check out her other books! You'll love them!
This book is so amazing and I hope you like it as much as we do!
Follow @bronteandwilder on Instagram for more fun book recommendations!

[Rebecca Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Swatch was a beautiful book. It began with a girl intrigued with colors. She began chasing and capturing them. Swatch went to capture Yellow and realized maybe the colors don't want this. She asked and it said no. This book talks about understanding other people's opinions and thoughts. It also includes understanding their space. The illustrations were truly incredible. I loved the colors and how beautiful they were across the page. It ended with a masterpiece design. I loved seeing how bright the pictures were and how they brought everything to life. I would read this book to upper elementary school students. It incorporates ideas of community and colors/color combination. I enjoyed the illustrations the most!

[Emily Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on display at the Education Library. I was intrigued by the bright cover page. This book teaches the concept of colors. The story is about a girl named Sketch who is a color tamer. She personified the colors by making them dance, move, and talk. She caught all of the colors in jars and kept them in her room. There is a slight use of other figurative language that adds to the story. This was an interesting read. The bright-colored illustrations keep your eyes on the page and are extremely detailed. These would easily keep a child entertained. I wish there was more of a storyline, but it was a quick read. This book would work well for young grades such as preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade. This would work great when teaching and/or reiterating colors.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very colorful book. I can see it being used in a preschool class or elementary class right before art time - encouraging kids to use lots of color in fun, messy ways.

It could also be used with older elementary school students to discuss personification.

This is a quick read so it works for short story times too.

Great art - kids may want a re-read just for the art.

My kids enjoyed it.

Note: Although the main character wears headbands and face paint, I‘m not sure she is Native American, so I would not count this as a diversity read. I think she is just supposed to be a color taming girl in a magical world.