Jorge Luján, illustrated by Piet Grobler, translated by John Oliver Simon and Rebecca Parfitt,
Colors ¡Colores!
Groundwood Books, 2008.

Ages 5-9

This gem of a book brings together two well-known names in quality children’s books, Argentinian-Mexican poet Jorge Luján (Tarde de invierno / Winter Afternoon) and South African illustrator Piet Grobler, with what is much more than simply an introduction to colors. The harmony of the words and images sends the imagination flying on a magical rainbow of a ride, made all the more expansive by the apparent simplicity of both.  Indeed, from the first of the single-stanzed poems, where “beige/ fell asleep on the sand. El Beige/ se durmió en la arena/”, young readers/listeners are lifted out of the mundane to explore the world of color.

Each short poem stands alone on its double-page spread, but string the poems together and they paint a whole landscape as they progress. Time passes from the yellow disc of the sun shining in the day, to night appearing, wearing her black gown. Grobler’s sweep of black shows, yes, the figure of a woman wearing black, but also a depth of space, which could be sky or could be land, and the hint of a sickle moon at the end of her train. The color Green encapsulates the wonder of nature and what can grow from a tiny seed; Orange is an orange. Brown is, among other things, an antelope, and young children will take great delight in finding other antelopes, endearingly drawn with very long horns, dotted around the book, although they do not appear on every page and so do not become a cliché. The translators have certainly done justice to the poems but if you can read the original Spanish, then you can get even more out of them: for example, rosa is the color and the flower; “Vio un lago,/vio.../ vio.../¡violeta!” (“I saw a lake./ I saw.../ I saw.../...Violet!”).

Grobler’s illustrations complement Luján’s poetry perfectly: broad swathes of watercolor blend to create a subtle spectrum for each color, against which more defined details such as children, birds and trees are set.  The pristine white background of the page imbues the illustrations with the same expansiveness projected by the poems.

This is a wonderful book, especially for young children who are beginning to play with words and ideas.  It should be both joyously read aloud and quietly savoured alone.

Marjorie Coughlan
September 2008