The Colors of Us

[The Colors of Us] by Karen Katz is a charming children's book illustrating the the broad spectrum of skin tones found among people with an emphasis on various shades of brown. A girl learns from her artist mother to pay attention to the range of human diversity among the people she knows, and indeed she does, then goes home to paint all the glorious shades from butterscotch to cinnamon to chocolate cupcake. The various people she encounters as part of her daily life reflect a diversity of ages and ethnicities and roles. Karen Katz wrote this for her daughter Lena, also the name of the girl in the book. It's a pleasant, well-illustrated way to instill self-esteem and aesthetic appreciation for beauty in everyone. I bought this as a gift show more for my quasi-niece, the adopted daughter of my chosen sister. show less

Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades. She begins to appreciate the world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people.

What stood out is that the author created this book for her daughter, Lena, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala six years ago. I connect a lot with this book because I am brown and adopted from india!

Love this color affirming story of a girl who notices the skin color of her beautiful neighbors. She goes along in her neighborhood and notices neighbors that she likes and what color their skin is. She likes their skin colors to delicious foods and is proud of how many different colors are represented in her community. This is a great book to use with identity work with students and helps students select skin color crayons in their own illustrations. This is a great book for art teachers to use as students mix colors for their own self portraits. I love that this book celebrates many different skin tones and provides an affirming look at the skin tones of communities.

I enjoy Karen Katz' books like, "Where is Baby's Bellybutton," but this was a bit cheesy and superficial. It really reduced the cultural differences to just skin color. She describes each skin color as a different type of food, also a bit off-putting. Since this is for very young children, it could be used in curriculum just for pointing out that there are different colors of people.

This book follows the daily travels of a young girl named Lena. She is trying to figure out what her mom means by "there is all different kinds of brown". She discovers that everyone is a different shade when she looks at her family and friends. They are all different, and all beautiful. I enjoyed this book and think it teaches children great values. They learn that everyone is different and looks different and that is okay. The book shows children to love every race and person. I love the vivid pictures the words paint. For example instead of saying light brown, the author says things such as "caramel, amber, bronze, precious jewel". The words show a positive way to describe someone.

The theme of this book is that everyone is unique but all wonderful in their own way, specifically when it comes to skin color. It discusses all the different shades of color one could be and describes each one with a positive word, “like honey, like cinnamon, like butterscotch, like toffee”. This is a good example of realistic fiction because it is set in present day and the story is realistic and believable. A mother is explaining to her daughter that not everyone is the same shade of color but each has a special skin color and all are wonderful. This is a realistic scenario that all can appreciate and learn from. The characters are believable and relatable.
Art media: mixed media including collage, gouache and colored pencils. show more
Appropriate Age: Primary show less

This is a lovely book that celebrates the diversity of children. A character in the story wants to paint a self-portrait but quickly realizes there isn't a paint color that matches her skin tone perfectly. She has to mix different hues to get the color she needs. She compares different skin tones to different objects she sees and uses different language to describe these colors. "Sonia is the color of creamy peanut butter."