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Blue
How many shades of blue are there?
There’s the soft blue of a baby’s cherished blanket, the ocean blue of a romp in the waves, the chilly blue of a cold winter’s walk in the snow, and the true blue of the bond that exists between children and animals.
In this simple, sumptuously illustrated companion to Caldecott Honor Book Green , award-winning artist Laura Vaccaro Seeger turns her attention to the ways in which color evokes emotion, and in doing so tells the story of one special and enduring friendship.
There’s the soft blue of a baby’s cherished blanket, the ocean blue of a romp in the waves, the chilly blue of a cold winter’s walk in the snow, and the true blue of the bond that exists between children and animals.
In this simple, sumptuously illustrated companion to Caldecott Honor Book Green , award-winning artist Laura Vaccaro Seeger turns her attention to the ways in which color evokes emotion, and in doing so tells the story of one special and enduring friendship.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2018
4 people are currently reading
418 people want to read
About the author
Laura Vaccaro Seeger
31 books82 followersLaura Vaccaro Seeger is a New York Times best-selling author and illustrator and the recipient of a 2008 Caldecott Honor, Theodor Seuss Geisel Honors for both 2009 and 2008, a 2007 New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, and the 2007 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Best Picture Book. Her books include First the Egg, The Hidden Alphabet, and Dog and Bear, among others.
Raised on Long Island, New York, Seeger began drawing at two years old and never stopped. For as long as she remembers, she wanted to write picture books. She received her B.F.A. degree at the School of Fine Art and Design at SUNY Purchase in Westchester, New York, and then moved to Manhattan, where she worked as an animator, artist, and editor in the network television business.
Seeger lives in Rockville Centre, Long Island, with her husband, Chris, their two sons, Drew and Dylan, and their dog, Copper. She loves painting, surfing, tennis, playing the piano, and spending time with her family. She takes long walks at the beach every day and paints in her studio every night.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/laurav...
Raised on Long Island, New York, Seeger began drawing at two years old and never stopped. For as long as she remembers, she wanted to write picture books. She received her B.F.A. degree at the School of Fine Art and Design at SUNY Purchase in Westchester, New York, and then moved to Manhattan, where she worked as an animator, artist, and editor in the network television business.
Seeger lives in Rockville Centre, Long Island, with her husband, Chris, their two sons, Drew and Dylan, and their dog, Copper. She loves painting, surfing, tennis, playing the piano, and spending time with her family. She takes long walks at the beach every day and paints in her studio every night.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/laurav...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 311 reviews
October 3, 2018
My favorite book of the year! It is astonishing the emotion Laura Vaccaro Seeger is able to convey in this wordless picture book. I dare anyone not to cry experiencing Blue. The book is about the different phases of life. Yes, a dog passes on in it, but Blue is so loving and hopeful you don't really concentrate on the sadness. Seeger won a Caldecott honor for Green. I like Blue even more. Check out this masterpiece when it releases in the fall, folks.
September 23, 2018
I had not idea a book that is told entirely through words depicting different shades of blue would be such an emotional experience. So beautiful.
October 12, 2018
Wow! I expected this to be a color book but Laura Vaccaro Seeger threw a curve ball. Brillant story telling! This one blew me away.
September 27, 2019
So beautiful in so many aspects. But as someone with a golden dog, and so many friends who have already read this, you'd think someone would have warned me it would be akin to The Rough Patch & Stay: a Girl, a Dog, a Bucket List.
December 7, 2018
What a beautiful picture book and a touching story. Using two-word text per page and a two-page spread with cut-outs per picture, we follow the story of a child and his dog. The color blue with the story evoke emotions I never dreamed of with a color. Even though the dog dies, there is hope at the end of the story. Definitely, one of my favorite children's books for the year.
December 13, 2018
Is it really right that a concept book about color made me cry?
January 19, 2019
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book!! I absolutely loved this and for me this is a major Caldecott contender. Loved the artwork. Loved the simple yet beautiful and heartbreaking story. I will definitely share this with students at school. A personal favorite of mine.
February 14, 2019
Special thanks to Meg for making me cry in the office!
Lovely paintings that illustrate the bond between a child and their dog. Really like the cutouts that bring in the texture/paint from the previous/next spreads.
Lovely paintings that illustrate the bond between a child and their dog. Really like the cutouts that bring in the texture/paint from the previous/next spreads.
October 7, 2018
This beautiful book has more of a story in the pictures than her other book, Green. The story follows a little boy and his dog, growing up together.
February 10, 2019
The story of a boy and his dog growing up, having adventures and learning what it means to be true blue.
February 8, 2019
Before Laura Vaccaro Seeger's Blue arrived in 2018, we had her 2013 Caldecott Honoree Green, a similar look at the infinite nuance of a single color in our world. Green celebrated its color as the symbol of life—the rareness of verdancy in a universe bigger than humans can comprehend—and Blue shows the beauty of blue in nature and the poignancy of blue feelings, which visit us all eventually. Blue is as important to life as green, coloring our experience in vivacious and somber tones. The spectrum of light would be incomplete without blue.
A boy and his puppy begin life together, on a soft blue blanket surrounded by toys. As they get older they play outside among blueberry bushes and butterflies whose wings are colored cerulean and cobalt. At the beach, boy and dog sprint into the frothy turquoise ocean; on another day, they release helium balloons into an endless periwinkle sky. They lie in bed under the iodine darkness of midnight, or camp outside in a tent in the solitude of nature's blue night. They scamper in the yard through the merry spurt of water from a garden hose, or seek shelter from the pastel raindrops of a summer storm. But one day youth will fade, and an arthritic dog won't be able to enjoy the pleasures of a million shades of blue with his boy. Goodbye will come, but life isn't over for the grieving boy. There's more blue and every color of the rainbow to experience, and new friends to see them with. It's the birth of a new era in his life, though he won't forget what came before.
Laura Vaccaro Seeger's depictions of blue are lush and evocative. The panorama of the ocean is my favorite, but the cover art is also lustrous. The page cutouts are ingenious, pieces of background we hardly noticed on the previous page that become essential to the illustration on the next. The precision design necessary for Green and Blue is incredible. I rate this book two and a half stars, and I'd go higher if there were more to the story, though I know the simplicity is intentional. If you liked Green, don't miss this spiritual sequel. As far as sensory picture books go, Blue is one of the better options out there.
A boy and his puppy begin life together, on a soft blue blanket surrounded by toys. As they get older they play outside among blueberry bushes and butterflies whose wings are colored cerulean and cobalt. At the beach, boy and dog sprint into the frothy turquoise ocean; on another day, they release helium balloons into an endless periwinkle sky. They lie in bed under the iodine darkness of midnight, or camp outside in a tent in the solitude of nature's blue night. They scamper in the yard through the merry spurt of water from a garden hose, or seek shelter from the pastel raindrops of a summer storm. But one day youth will fade, and an arthritic dog won't be able to enjoy the pleasures of a million shades of blue with his boy. Goodbye will come, but life isn't over for the grieving boy. There's more blue and every color of the rainbow to experience, and new friends to see them with. It's the birth of a new era in his life, though he won't forget what came before.
Laura Vaccaro Seeger's depictions of blue are lush and evocative. The panorama of the ocean is my favorite, but the cover art is also lustrous. The page cutouts are ingenious, pieces of background we hardly noticed on the previous page that become essential to the illustration on the next. The precision design necessary for Green and Blue is incredible. I rate this book two and a half stars, and I'd go higher if there were more to the story, though I know the simplicity is intentional. If you liked Green, don't miss this spiritual sequel. As far as sensory picture books go, Blue is one of the better options out there.
November 30, 2018
Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s latest picture book Blue is the companion story to her 2012 Caldecott Honor book Green. It is so simple yet so profound. Using minimal text and a limited color palate for the illustrations, Seegar nevertheless manages to weave together a beautiful story about the relationship between a boy and his dog. Bravo! This book will certainly appeal to children ages 3-6 but older children and even adults will enjoy and appreciate the message that’s delivered between the lines…I know I did! Blue is very versatile in terms of use as storytime material; you can incorporate into a storytime about dogs, colors, pets, seasons, and more.
October 3, 2018
Oh, my little heart. It breaks.
This one hit me and I’m not okay.
You’re going to need tissues for this emotional read.
This one hit me and I’m not okay.
You’re going to need tissues for this emotional read.
October 4, 2018
Oh! What a sweet book. Themes include seasons, aging, the passage of time, and loss. It was extra sad because the dog in the story looked so much like mine. :(
December 5, 2018
This is just beautiful - both the illustrations and the story.
December 23, 2018
When a book about the color blue is so much more. Oh my heart. Tears for this one.
February 14, 2019
I don't think it is fair that a book with only two words per page made me cry on the desk at 9:40 in the morning.
April 17, 2025
A tribute to old dogs, new dogs, and the color blue. A companion to the author's Green book, which I also enjoyed.
This one made my eyes fill with tears. Our old dog turned ten years old this week. She's doing great, but books like these get me every time. She was once the new dog, too.
This one made my eyes fill with tears. Our old dog turned ten years old this week. She's doing great, but books like these get me every time. She was once the new dog, too.
February 27, 2019
A tribute to the color blue, with its diverse range of hues and functions. Several things distinguish this picture book:
1) The illustrations are simply beautiful.
2) The textures are diverse and lifelike.
3) The cut-outs add interest to the book, especially because their alignment is so well placed.
Unlike Green, Blue tells a story, which adds yet another dimension to this book. It's a moving tale of the deep friendship between a boy and his dog as the boy matures and the dog progresses through his entire life cycle.
Another superbly executed picture book from this award-winning creator.
1) The illustrations are simply beautiful.
2) The textures are diverse and lifelike.
3) The cut-outs add interest to the book, especially because their alignment is so well placed.
Unlike Green, Blue tells a story, which adds yet another dimension to this book. It's a moving tale of the deep friendship between a boy and his dog as the boy matures and the dog progresses through his entire life cycle.
Another superbly executed picture book from this award-winning creator.
November 14, 2020
This isn't really what I expected. I thought it would be a book about color, with large beautiful pages of blues, but it seems to have been conceived as a beginning board book. The art seems to be created with the smaller board book size in mind. Cut-outs on each page give a clever glimpse of the page before and after, so that leaves become paw prints, a T shirt becomes a balloon, etc. There are very few words, but there is a lot of story. The story is front and center, the color blue is just a framing device (and honestly, this is what disappointed me the most) to allow Seeger to tell the story of a little boy and a puppy who grow old together. Of course, dogs do not live as long as people, and I feel someone should have warned me that the dog dies. So I'm warning you.
February 2, 2019
Talk about a story within a story, a book that is layered with meaning that can be reread and appreciated on so many levels! Blue by Laura Seeger seems on the surface to be whimsical book about the many shades of blue around us, but marry the simple text to the gorgeous narrative illustrations and you have a masterpiece. Color can evoke emotions and can reflect our experience so profoundly- I know you will be moved by the companion to her Caldecott Honor Book- GREEN.
December 15, 2018
I love BLUE even more than GREEN, and I didn't think that was possible. I'll definitely be adding this to my personal collection.
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I support independent bookstores. You can use this link to find one near you: http://www.indiebound.org
August 19, 2018
Have your kleenex ready when you read this one, or as I like to call it Trauma at the hands of a picture book. Beautifully illustrated, but might make you cry, don't say I didn't warn you.
December 1, 2018
A boy and a dog grow up, with the color blue shading their days together.
December 7, 2018
2019 Caldecott Honor??
December 9, 2018
This is much more than a color book!
January 3, 2019
Wow. Emotionally beautiful
April 22, 2019
If you need a good cry
May 25, 2019
Immersive and cool - wonderful meditation on this beautiful color.
February 22, 2019
Beautiful, sad, and hopeful. Full review here: https://www.theproblemsite.com/book-s...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 311 reviews