Hard to believe that in the four months Lou and I have been doing our weekly ‘When We Were Little’ posts, we haven’t yet canvassed a Golden Book. We have some catching up to do!
One of my favourite Golden Books, and the one that probably has the strongest memories for me, is The Colour Kittens. It must have been given to me very early in my life, as the inscription on the front page reads ‘This book belongs to Katherine’, so it was written before my name was always shortened – which is for as long as I can remember…
The Colour Kittens is written by Margaret Wise Brown – author of Goodnight Moon. It’s interesting that one of the kittens is named ‘Hush’, which is a word that is also present and distinctive for me in Goodnight Moon (And a quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’!). Also similarly, the text has a lovely lilting rhythm.
Drifting in and out of rhyming verse, the words are very soothing:
Green as cats’ eyes,
Green as grass
By streams of water
Green as glass
The story follows Hush and Brush, who love to mix colours of paints, but don’t know how to make green. It is a lovely introduction to the idea of mixing colours – as we discover how the kittens make pink and orange and purple and – finally – green.
The illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen do every justice to the underlying theme. Their style is very distinctive, stylised, and the use of colour is particularly stunning. Crisp shapes and unusual contrasts help to give the illustrations an amazing vibrancy. I find it amazing that the reproduction of the colours can be so vibrant, on the lightweight pages of a production that was made to be affordable to everyone.
The artwork of this book has, I’ve learnt, been inspiring for designers and artists. I read recently somewhere, I can’t find the link at the moment, about one particular designer’s continuing association of a hue of purple as ‘Color Kitten Purple’. A fitting tribute to the influence of a humble little Golden Book.
love those color kittens… never seen it with your fancy aussie “u” before. awesome!
Hi Katie,
I just loved this book when I was growing up – I have been looking around for a copy recently after seeing it on VKBMKL. I was hoping it would show up on her etsy site! No such luck so far!
I just loved the cans of paint spilling over to make and mix different colours – gorgeous!
PS Thanks for the very prompt delivery of my order last week – very exciting!
O Brush, O Hush! I love this book, and I’m so happy that these books are still around to share with our kids.
Just passed on my copy of Color Kittens to my 3-year-old, hoping it becomes wired into his imagination as it was mine.
An aside – I think you’d love “The Little Brute Family” by Russell and Lillian Hoban.
Can’t wait to dig into your blog…
All the Best!
This was one of my favourites when I grew up in the 1950s. I think the jade green cover initially attracted me – and the magic of the swirls of colour and the mixing of colour and the somehow ‘illicit naughtiness’ of the kittens. I agree there are other Little Golden Books that you should review and introduce to a new audience – eg. The Little Red Hen, The Saggy Baggy Elephant -and there was one that was a story about a platypus – can’t remeber its title and haven’t been able to locate it on the web.
Hi Sue,
You might be thinking of Rabbit and his Friends – which is reviewed by Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves here:
http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2008/12/rabbit-and-his-friends.html
It was one on my to-do list for ‘When We Were Little’ but Scribbler beat me to it!
Katie
That’s the one! I think it was next in line to the Colour Kittens as No 2 favourite. Can’t believe that Richard Scarry wrote it – I had thought he appeared on the children’s book scene in the 1970s!