This Book is Gray

My kids LOVE funny picture books. I read aloud 3 or 4 picture books to my kids everyday and I always try to make the last one be a funny one. This book is interesting, because my kids’ tastes are usually pretty well-defined. They KNOW what they think is funny. This book however, my daughter read on her own before us and thought it was just “a little funny.” However, as I was reading it, I said, “What are you talking about? This book is hilarious!” When I read it aloud to my children using different a different tones for each color, my kids were laughing out loud. They just needed a little help appreciating This Book is Gray.

This Book is Gray Details

Title: This Book is Gray
Author/Illustrator: Lindsay Ward
Publication Year: 2019
Website: https://lindsaymward.com/
Age Group:Preschool, Kindergarten, Early Elementary
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Comments

Maybe it is fitting that it took my 8 year old a little time to appreciate the humor in this book. The main idea behind the story is that the color gray is feeling underappreciated. He is feeling left out by all the other colors as he is not even included in the rainbow and decides to make his own GRAY book.

Needless to say, the other colors show up and hilarity ensues. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the personality that the author put into each of the characters. This is a fantastic book to read aloud as it is easy to distinguish between who is speaking without even needing to “do voices.” The illustrations plus the word choices make it clear who is talking.

This book is also great for teaching kids some color vocabulary such as primary colors, secondary colors, and achromatics. If I were doing an art lesson involving colors, this would be a wonderful book to read alongside it to bring some levity and humor into an already fun subject.

Lastly, in addition to being clever and hilarious, this book also has an underlying theme of inclusion. No one likes to feel left out. Sometimes we behave in certain ways without thinking about how we make others feel. I love that this book also encourages empathy.

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