Blue Goose

by Nancy Tafuri

When Farmer Gray takes a trip, Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decide to paint their black-and-white farm. Red Hen paints the barn red and White Duck paints the fence white. Then Blue Goose and Yellow Chick pour their paint together to make green for the grass and trees. By the time Farmer Gray comes back, the whole farm is full of color--what a wonderful surprise! Incorporating primary and secondary colors, as well as animals, this is a simple and engaging way for young children to learn basic concepts.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Animals, Childrens, Art, Birds, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2008

About the author

Nancy Tafuri is probably best known as the creator of Have You Seen My Duckling?, a 1985 Caldecott Honor Book described by Parent’s Choice as “beautifully precise yet emotionally affecting.” Trained as a graphic designer, Tafuri has authored more than 45 books over 30 years for the very young.

When Tafuri first attempted picture book illustration in the late 1970’s picture books were aimed at five-, six-, and seven-year-olds. Tafuri’s images were considered “too graphic” for children that age. “The pictures are too big,” she was told over and over about the large, colorful shapes she drew. Finally, Tafuri’s talent was recognized and tapped at Greenwillow Books, Harper Collins Publishers.

Since then she has had the opportunity to work with Scholastic Press, Scholastic Inc., Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division and most recently Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, Little, Brown and Company.

Tafuri was born in Brooklyn, New York. For the first ten years of her life she was an only child and says that this helped her to learn to entertain herself with stories and art.

Tafuri entered the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1964. Her first job was as an assistant art director for the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. She left two years later and married Thomas Tafuri, a fellow student at the School of Visual Arts.

The Tafuri’s opened their own graphic design studio, in 1971. Their primary product was dust jackets for hardcover books. They opened their business in New York City, but eventually moved their studio and home to Connecticut.

At this time, Nancy was able to devote all of her time to writing and illustration.

When Tafuri finally found herself illustrating children’s books, either her own or other authors’, she felt she had found her life’s calling and a strong sense of joy from creating them. She loves to take a small portion of the text and create a visual representation that children can grasp and remember. In 1989, when Cristina was born, Nancy began to feel even more strongly motivated to illustrate for children. Her work seemed even more important and more personal.

“I feel honored to be creating literature for young children. Seeing how very important the early years are in a person’s life, I can only hope that my books can contribute in some small way to that growth, with the feelings that I hope I project within those pages, through line, color, shape, and story.”

Reviews

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Farmer Gray goes away and Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decide to paint the farm. Duck paints the fence white. Chick paints the flowers yellow. Hen paints the barn red. And Goose paints the roof blue. Then they start mixing colors to get purple, orange, green, etc. Farmer Gray returns to his bright colored farm, and then in the evening Blue Goose paints a wash of blue over everything as it turns dark.

It was that final touch of painting twilight over the farm that took this book to another level for me. I loved the repetition of colors for the smallest children, the mixing of colors with the new color obvious to the eye of a child, and the richness of the hues being used. Tafuri's skill with simple lines in a picture book is evident here. Her illustrations burst from the pages, larger than life and with so few lines of text that the book is almost read in pictures alone.

Highly recommended, as are most of Tafuri's books, for toddler storytimes about colors. Children as small as two will enjoy spending time with these barnyard friends and chatting about colors and animals.

[Gwen the Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Tafuri's books are terrific for the toddler and pre-K set. This newest one is a great introduction to colors. A variety of animals live on a plain white farm. The different animals decide to help make it more colorful and go from primary colors to mixing new colors. Soon the farm is beautiful and colorful. This is one of my favorite color books.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about colors and mixing colors. The story is cute too. Reagan loves this book. We borrowed it from the library but we may have to purchase this one because she asks for it constantly.

[Amy Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for colors. Would be fun to use in storytime and also good to put on a toddler booklist.

[babyhippoface · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely clever little book about color and the way the primary colors mix to create secondary colors. Every elementary library should have a copy of this title.

[Kristie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, simple story that emphasizes primary colors as well as color mixing. Another win for Tafuri.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Tafuri is very reliable. This was a good book to read aloud to storyhour.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book about colors and making secondary colors. Cute story and nice illustrations.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book to read. Teaches colors and mixing of colors. Simple pictures and text.

[Mollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A staple in my book collection for my day care kids under three. Great way to teach kids about the primary colors and the possibilities of creating new colors for a barnyard.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an original idea! The big bright pictures caught my baby's attention. Would be great for kids learning about colors and color mixing.

[Shannon Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The farm animals painted everything when the farmer left. That night the blue goose painted everything blue except the moon. Cute story.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The animals on the farm decide to paint the world around them which is blacka nd white. Nice basic color book. Toddler and up

[Jo-Ann]

Fiction:
Mouse Paint
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.


Could also do a "Feeling Blue at the Library" theme:
Combine these other books:
Molly and the Night Monster
The Deep Blue Sea - Audrey Wood
Blue / by Sarah L. Schuette
Nonfiction:

Activity/Movement/Song:
If you are wearing Red song on CD
Tune of "Happy and You Know It
If you are wearing red, shake your head
If you are wearing red, shake your head
If you are wearing red
Then please shake your head
If you are wearing red, shake your head

If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue,
Then please touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe

If you are wearing green, bow to the queen
If you are wearing green, bow to the queen
If you are wearing green,
Then please bow to the queen
If you are wearing green, bow to the queen

If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow,
Then please shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O

If you are wearing black, pat your back
If you are wearing black, pat your back
If you are wearing black,
Then please pat your back
If you are wearing black, pat your back

If you are wearing brown, turn around
If you are wearing brown, turn around
If you are wearing brown,
Then please turn around
If you are wearing brown, turn around

OR:
If you're wearing red today,
Red today, red today,
If you're wearing red today,
Stand up and say "Hoo-ray!"

OR:
I usually use the tune to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but you can also use Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.

If you're wearing red today, red today, red today
If you're wearing red today, please stand up!

That's it! Easy peasy, right?! Of course you repeat and replace the color red with whatever colors you see out there in the audience. And I usually do "please stand up" two or three times and then warn them that I'm going to mix it up, so they'd better listen. And then I do other actions. Please clap your hands, please touch your ears, please stand on one leg, please rub your tummy, etc. etc.

In my experience, the kids really respond to it and they like listening for the colors and the actions. When I think we've gotten everybody to do an action at least once, I'll ask if we missed any colors (and often they'll suggest doing the color I happen to be wearing..!).


OR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpMqcM...
Use paint samples - or print colour rectangles. Attach samples to white paper stand up bags and had our to children - they have to find the right bag to go in.

Craft:
Colour a rainbow

OR
New and Improved Rainbow-Making work
In my last post I wrote about my Make-a-Rainbow activity. fine-motor activity for the children.

First, I cut the pipe cleaners I had been using into shorter pieces. I also cut the florist foam piece in half again. I added a bowl with pony beads: 10 beads of each of the 6 colors. Now the children will poke one end of the pipe cleaner into the foam, thread the 10 corresponding colored beads onto it, and then bend it into an arch and poke the other end into the foam, creating one color band of the rainbow.

OR

Spin Art Hearts
spin art in a salad spinner
Instead of round paper cut to fit the salad spinner, we made hearts.

The how-to is simple: Put your paper in the spinner. Squeeze/drop/dribble on some paint - slightly watered-down tempera works great. Now, put the lid on and spin, spin, spin!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri follows the fanciful actions of Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck who decide to paint their black-and-white farm while Farmer Gray is away on a trip.

White Duck paints the fence white and Yellow Chick paints the flowers yellow. Red Hen paints the barn red while Blue Goose paints the barn roof blue. Then paint mixing begins. Purple doors, orange shutters and light blue sky result. Blue Goose and Yellow Chick pour their paint together to make green for the grass and trees. A yellow sun and red tractor are painted just in time for the farmer's return to a colorful farm! A blue night-time coat of paint completes the picture, and the story.

There is a bold font for this simple, straight forward text.

Tafuri's illustrations are rendered in brush ink, watercolor pencils, gouache and ink. Paint mixing to produce secondary colors is shown.
My favorite images include the title page, color mixing chart on the back cover, Goose and Hen mixing purple, Goose and Duck painting the sky, Chick painting the sun, and the farmer returning.

While I like Mouse Paint more, this has appeal, with touches like the yellow paint spilled on Hen, Duck and Goose, and the unmentioned but pictured pig brought to the farm by Farmer Gray. The red tractor reminds me of the old Farmall on our family farm. I liked the wheelbarrow full of paint cans. While a blue goose is unlikely, and orange shutters and purple doors rare, this book works for me and should work well for toddlers and preschoolers. Recommended for school and public library collections.

For ages 2 to 6, colors, vocabulary, farm animals, print-motivation, farms, read-aloud, and fans of Nancy Tafuri.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creative way to teach the colors and how various combinations make other colors.

Ages: 3 - 6

Here’s our book favs on color: watch my reel!

Content Considerations: nothing to note.

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[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very cute book, but it didn't really hold my two year old son's attention. At the beginning of the book, you have a blue goose, a red hen, a yellow chick and a white duck. The background illustrations are black and white. The four animals decide to paint their barnyard. They start out with the three primary colors plus white. (The colors that correspond to the animals.) After they paint some things with those four colors, they decide to mix colors together to create other colors. (purple, orange, light blue and green) By the end of the book, they have painted everything and they no longer live in a black and white world.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly standard, run-of-the-mill, basic color book. I've never personally seen a blue goose or orange shutters and a purple door on a barn, but just about anything goes color-wise in kids' books. My husband maintains that the size of the waddle on that hen makes it a rooster and when he reads the book he adjusts the text accordingly.

I like the inclusion of light blue - the combination of blue and white - which isn't very common in kids' color books that I've seen. Otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary.

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids really enjoy this book, the youngest for the animals and colorful artwork, the oldest because of the color, story line, and the concept of blending colors to make new colors. There is a chart of colors and what they make when they are mixed together; she loves going through this. Blue Goose is a fun book for teaching children about colors.
Something that I like about it is the joy that the animals receive from having created a beautiful surprise for their Farmer Gray by working together to paint and beautify their barnyard while he is gone. My girls love the "SURPIRSE!" part of the story as well. It's a fun book.

[IrenesBookReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farmer Grey drives off in his truck to go to town. While he is gone the animals paint the farm in all the primary colors. The animals are Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck. They mix their colors to make other colors and the farm is done just in time for Farmer Greys return.

Your child can learn about mixing colors and creating new ones. I enjoyed how the colors the animals painted with match their body color. I also enjoyed how they painted the different farm objects those colors. A fun and also educational read.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good follow through story about primary and secondary colors.
In this tale, Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decided to paint their barnyard. A lot of ideas were put together.

Throughout the story, participants during storytime followed through very well when asked to remember the different color occurances throughout the story. They answered correctly the simple activity afterwards. Overall, the book works very well in helping older preschoolers and younger kindergarten kids to understand, listen and think about their colors.

[Ariel Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It ain't a classic for nothin'! Blue goose, red hen, yellow chick, and white duck do an excellent job of painting the farm while Farmer Grey is away. Blue Goose even makes sure everything is painted blue when night falls (except, of course, the moon!)

Tafuri's illustrations feature bold lines, defined colors, and uncluttered pages that are developmentally appropriate and pretty.

Obviously a go-to story time book, especially for colors.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty basic colors book, but shorter than Mouse Paint, which made it great for my toddlers. I liked the way the different colors were introduced, and after reading it, it was fun to flip back to the first (all white) pages and show the kids the difference. That got some oohs and aahs.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book about mixing primary colors to make secondary colors that was included in our Colors bundle from the library. I didn't find it particularly interesting. It's fun to watch the black and white pages fill up with color, but other than that it's a bit dull to read. My baby did like the simple colorful pictures, though.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although its just called Blue Goose, this book is about a crafty crew that also includes Red Hen, White Duck and Yellow Chick. They go around and add color to Farmer Gray's farm. This was a perfect title for toddler storytime. I got some wows when I turned to the vertical spread. That's always awesome.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable story.

I'd wager that Red Hen and White Duck might have something to do with Farmer Grey's acquisition of Pink Pig. If that's not the case, there's an obvious sequel in the making from the upcoming conflict stemming from the pig edging in on their turf within the visible color spectrum.

[The Library Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overtones of "Mouse Paint" and this would combine well in a story hour with that other picture book about colors. Lots of young child appeal--another delight from an author who has never had a Caldecott winner, but always comes up with excellent creative books for the youngest readers.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute book. I love that it teaches kids that blending colors will make a new color.

Literacy skills:

Print motivation-this fun story with wonderful, bright illustrations will encourage children to love books.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story for introducing colours. I like how the different colour animals cooperate to create new colours. I think this will be a good book to read my little guy when he's old enough to understand, but 3 months is a little too young!

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about mixing colors, set on a farm with Blue Goose, Yellow Chick, Red Hen, and White Duck. Can they paint their gray farm before Farmer Gray returns from town? Awesome pictures as always this author!