Colors for Zena

PreS-Gr 1—Zena, a round-headed tot, wakes up in a room devoid of color, except for the polka dots on her bed, her face, and her shirt. Asking where the colors went, she heads through a black-and-white house to the outside. The first street is all yellow, the second, red. She states that she needs more colors, and the orange lion replies that he is yellow and red mixed. The next landscape is blue, then yellow again, so that the frog becomes green, and so on, until they enter a full-color room with pots of paint in primary colors. They paint a picture and go to bed in Zena's now Technicolor room to "dream of colors till morning." The story is followed by a color wheel and activity ideas. Wellington's trademark gouache childlike art is in evidence here. The frog, lion, and dragon that appear in the story are the toys on Zena's bed in the first scene. The basics of color and color mixing come through clearly, and Zena and her animals are appealing, but the story lacks cohesion and logic and is clearly a vehicle to explain color mixing to children. While books on colors are always welcome, and Wellington is usually a reliable source for curriculum support, this thin story doesn't live up to her other works. Stick with Ellen Stoll Walsh's Mouse Paint (Harcourt, 1989).—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT