Hope's Color's by Elizabeth and Katharine Bauman

Hope’s Colors Written by Elizabeth and Katharine Bauman. Illustrated by Katharine Bauman. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; first edition (August 8, 2016).

ISBN-10: 1535454946 ISBN-13: 978-1535454940

Tags: Picture Books, Art, Ages 3 to 8, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Colors, Imagination, School, Creativity, Vision, Extraordinary

 

Reviewers Rating: 

The teacher wants Hope to color like everyone else, but Hope sees the world differently. Art is Hope's doorway into an enchanted land where everything is anything but ordinary. Hope has a vision, and she wants to soar!

This picture book joyfully expresses diversity in thinking and unique to but not limited to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Written and illustrated by a mother-daughter team who live what happens when one is allowed to express creativity and art from the single heart and brain synapses of an individual entitled to be themselves. Not only do teachers teach children, but children prepare teachers as well.

In the early childhood classroom, this book could be used to spark discussion on diversity. Move this book from learning center to learning center and watch the magic happen. In the Art and Creativity Center, children can be encouraged to express emotion through color. In the Math and Science Center, create colors by mixing food coloring in water, poster-paint-dipped wheels driven across a piece of paper, marbles rolled in paint splotched paper in a cake pan,  splattered watercolors in paper-lined boxes. In the Block Center blocks can be wrapped in papers of all colors and used to create castles or any other structures seen in new ways. In the Dramatic Play Center, make puppets or quilts from colored cloth to become Tyrone’s or Meredith’s Colors. The Computer Center can become an opportunity for two or three children to explore quilt patterns and color wheels. In the Literacy Center, color words will make their way to the Word Wall from the book, and new colors discovered across the classroom. Crayon-shaped paper can become new books by individuals or small groups to add to the class library. Outdoors, pans of paint can be placed in a “Barefoot Only Zone” where colors paint outside the lines with tricycles, hands, feet, even shoes from the Dress-Up Center.

 The use of shape and original language makes this an excellent early reader as well. Let second- and third- grade students create activities to take to younger classrooms to encourage children to color “outside the lines.”

Beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, and beautifully shared proceeds! Well-done Elizabeth and Katherine. I can’t wait to read the next lessons I need to learn!

I received a copy of this book from the authors for my honest and unbiased review.

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