- The Color Kittens
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The Color Kittens 
Author(s) Margaret Wise Brown Illustrator Alice and Martin Provensen Country United States Language English Genre(s) Children's literature Publisher Little Golden Books Publication date 1949 Media type Print Pages 24 ISBN 0-307-10234-3 OCLC Number 42383466 Dewey Decimal [E] 21 LC Classification PZ7.B8163 Cm 2000 The Color Kittens is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen published in 1949.
The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts, amusingly, lead to a variety of different hues--none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!"
Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that, "In a way, the book was written to teach facts about color, but its real subject is the huge pleasure to be found in the seeing and feeling of color [...]".[1] Regina Barreca, professor of English literature and feminist theory, writes in a humorous column featuring the book that, "The Color Kittens continues to capture my heart and my imagination because there is something about the sheer messiness of discovery and creativity that Hush and Brush embody that I’ve never quite found in another book.”[2] Suzanne Rahn notes that Hush and Brush’s active creativity and exploration have some parallels among Brown’s other cat characters, such as the drastically less-humanized Pussycat, who are much more passive in their representation of the creative state Brown called “Cat Life”.[3]
References
- ^ Zelinsky, Paul O. (2005). The Art of Reading. Compiled by Reading is Fundamental. Dutton Books. p. 62. ISBN 0-525-47484-6.
- ^ Barreca, Regina. "The Kittens Who Colored My World". Education World. http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/columnists/barreca/barreca034.shtml. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
- ^ Rahn, Suzanne. "Cat-Quest: A Symbolic Animal in Margaret Wise Brown". Children’s Literature: Volume 22, 1994 (Copyright © 1994 Hollins College). Project MUSE. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/childrens_literature/v022/22.rahn.html. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
External links
Categories:- Children's picture book stubs
- Children's fiction books
- Children's picture books
- 1949 books
- Little Golden Books
- Books by Margaret Wise Brown
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