Betty Ann Schwartz

The story features a young rabbit who is curious how a rainbow is made. He asks his mother, and she directs him to check with his friends. The rabbit approaches various other animals, ladybugs and blue birds and so on, and they each tell him that a particular color makes a rainbow. The color the animal chooses is, of course, the color that shades their bodies, and conveniently the rabbit meets animals in an order that matches the colored order of the rainbow. At the end, his mother sums up show more what her child learned - that you need the various colors, plus the sun and the rain, to make a rainbow.

Cute illustrations and a clear and simple story are accompanied by a gimmick. If a gimmick works well and is original, I appreciate it, as long as the story and illustrations are of decent (or better) quality. That's the case in this book. What's the gimmick? At the top of every page that features a color, a ribbon of the same hue stretches across from one page to the next. It starts with a red ribbon, and when you turn the page, the red ribbon is still there with an orange ribbon below, eventually building up to a beautiful rainbow of ribbons. The book concludes with a pop-up rainbow. We like this book. The story is educational in a fun way, and running your fingers over the ribbons is impossible to resist. This picture book has been read many times in our house already, and has much use left. show less

Even though this says it's a pop up, it really just has one pop up and the pop up is really simple. It's great because it is designed for babies and toddlers. It will hold up way better than a lift the flap book. Interactive elements are colored ribbons. As each color is added to the rainbow, page by page, the colored ribbons begin to show through slots in the board book pages to make a ribbon rainbow. Ribbons have some tension and prevent the book from ever fully opening. Then on the last show more page, there is a paper rainbow pop up. It's a pretty simple pop up.

My kids seemed to like the ribbons when they were babies. They will pull on them, but because the ribbons are fabric, they will hold up. Basically, if you keep books away from food (ie. limit food to some areas and books to another), this book will hold up well to heavy use. show less

Little Rabbit asks other animals about rainbows in What Makes a Rainbow, and each animal responds with the color to which they are most attuned. Donna Turner's soft, child-like illustrations each cover a full spread providing chromatic examples for each of the colors mentioned. However, the true illustrative star of this book is the "pop-up" feature -- a series of ribbons that thread their way through the book, each beginning on the page they're introduced. The book only mentions in passing show more the natural causes of rainbows, and fails to include all the ROY G. BIV colors, making its focus on basic color learning only. Because of the pop-up feature, libraries should only consider this book if they have disposable income. It would be suitable for public library collections. show less

A great toddler book! Yes, color ribbons magically appear on every page; and the great part is that it's very difficult to get the ribbons all messed up causing the book to not work. I mean, a child would have to work really hard at doing that! They love this book! I like it too! How does that magic work?