Picture Book Thursday: Red Green Blue by Alison Jay

Alison Jay's new book Red Green Blue: A First Book of Colors is a refreshing take on both a color book and nursery rhymes. She combines the two into one book and in a very succinct and fun way.

Each page features a different color and two-sentence paraphrase of popular nursery rhymes. For example, "Little Boy Blue's asleep in the hay. His sheep and his cow have run away." or "This yellow teapot's short and stout. She is the best at pouring out."

The illustrations are the absolute best part of this book. If you look closely, just about each page has a story-within-a story. For example, on the teapot page, there is a framed portrait of Miss Muffet on the wall. The next page of the book features Miss Muffet and the spider. You can also see the Little Boy Blue (on the previous page) in the background outside the window on the teapot page. These continue throughout the book sometimes showing four or five nursery rhyme characters or locations (ie: the pumpkin from Peter, Peter pumpkin eater in the background) in one illustration.

I think a child who is well versed in nursery rhymes would LOVE this book! They would have a great time trying to spot all the different nursery rhymes on the pages. But really anyone can enjoy this one. This book is available on May 13, 2010.

About the Author/Illustrator:
Alison Jay is the celebrated illustrator of many books for children. She studied illustration at the London College of Printing and lives in London, England.

Source disclosure: This book was sent to me unsolicited by the Penguin Group.