Lujan, Jorge. 2008. COLORS! COLORES! Illustrated by Piet Grobler. Translated by John Oliver Simion and Rebecca Parfitt. Berkeley, California: Groundwood Books / Libros Tigrillo. ISBN 0-88899-863-5
There are only eleven brief poems in this collection. Each poem is written in both English and Spanish on a double page painted with gentle watercolor illustrations. The poems and paintings work together to create a mood on each page. Rather than limiting the scope of the poems to the primary colors, these poems show the colors of nature starting with beige for sand and including pink, violet, black, white and pink as well as the more usual red, blue, orange and green.
Often English Spanish children’s books are criticized for their Spanish translations. In this collection, the poems were written in Spanish by Lujan. Lujan was raised in Argentina and now lives in Mexico. Therefore, the Spanish is unimpeachable. However, in May 2008, a School Library Journal Reviewer commented that something was lost in the English translation, “the alliterative wordplay of Vio un lago,/vio una flor,/vio el ocaso,/violeta ! becomes "I saw a lake./I saw a flower./I saw the twilight./…Violet!" Even with this minor quibble, the free-verse poems are lyrical wonders that evoke pictures in the mind.
Into a tiny seed / fits clover, fits a tree, / fits the whole jungle… / fits green.
The illustration that accompanies this poem seems to be an explosion of life, just as one imagines the spread of green, of life from the words in the poem. Similarly, the poem about black makes the darkness filled with twinkling stars seem immediate:
Night has put on / her black gown, / so the eyes of the universe / can shine more brightly.
The book also succeeds visually. In both Spanish and English the color names within the poems are written in a larger font and in the appropriate color. Also each page contains a small painting of an antelope in varying positions, so that readers can have the fun of spotting the antelope and seeing how he changes. The paintings are somewhat sophisticated for young children, but despite the simplicity of the topic and the brevity of the poems, the language and images are mature. For example, the poem about yellow describes the sun:
Yellow / rolls / through / the / sky / like / a / warm / gold / coin. This is only ten words, all of them one syllable, yet it is an image that will appeal more to readers who are teenagers or adults than to young children. Nevertheless, the illustrations and brief discussions will make the meaning accessible to them.
COLORS! COLORES! will appeal to readers of all ages and should definitely be included when reading to bilingual groups.
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