An Old theme told again

Pink Is for Boys has a theme (all colors are for everyone as well as flowers, rainbows, etc.) that is obvious from the time you look at the cover of the book. You see both a boy and girl painting with all the colors, and of course, pink is being colored by the boy and blue by the girl. By the end of the book the theme has become almost repetitive.

 

The illustrations are nice and simple but have details, too. What you need (the color and the text explaining what is happening) is all there. I must admit the page for purple (a favorite color of mine) is cute (purple is for unicorns, because you know unicorns). And I did enjoy the combination of black and white together.  Perhaps the best part of the story is how the use of colors make everything work.

 

Everything you see are things kids see in their everyday lives (okay maybe you have not seen a purple unicorn…) but everything is set up to show you how “normal” everything is. Nothing is a big deal because Pink is for boys and girls. All the colors are. The characters are just “normal” kids. They are all races and abilities shapes and sizes. Perhaps, I am a bit jaded, but I never really had this “pink is for girls” or “blue for boys” growing up. I played with trucks and dolls. I wore pink, blue, mostly purple, black, turquoise. But perhaps it is good that we do keep reinforcing what I was lucky enough to grow up with.

 

Robb Pearlman and Eda Kaban have created a contemporary story in a prose poetic format. And while this hardcover format is the perfect size it would also be great in a lap sized board book or in paper as well. In short, any format will be popular