Colored pencils, 24 x 32 cm, 1999

SOME READING

Learning colors is the theme of this book realized... with colored pencils! It is suitable for small children from 2 ½ years old, but also for older children because of its different levels of reading.

 

It follows the adventures of a little girl, Alice, who learns to recognize in the course of her adventures the six elementary colors. These are associated with nature: Blue: water from the sea; Green: leaves of trees; Yellow: the sun, of course; The orange: guess; Red: the field of poppies; The purple: the precious stones.

 

Funny scenes strike the imagination of children. The objects used, which serve as transition between each color, are part of the playful universe of the smallest. They all have a fascination with them: buoys to play in water, balloons to jump, balloon to inflate, the trick that makes bubbles, the umbrella to shelter from the rain, the shovel to dig.

 

The magician's magic wand works wonderfully in all circumstances. It takes the shape of the situation, it announces the color to come, and shines with all its lights whenever a dominant tint permeates the environment (1 page out of 3).

 

The succession of the different shades obeys the following principle: 1 = blue; 2 = green; 3 = yellow; 4 = orange; 5 = red; 6 = purple. Green is the mixture of blue and yellow, orange is yellow and red, and violet is the combination of red and blue. The circle is complete. 

 

Yet, this logic is not enough to build a narrative. This is also the culmination of a reflection animated by an invisible thread.

ANOTHER READING (OPTIONAL)

The story begins with the color blue, and its association with 
water can symbolize the beginning of life. We bathe in a liquid before we are born. The sea also represents the altitude "zero". This is a good way to visualize his level of learning at this point in the book. As a chick comes out of her shell, Alice loses her hat the moment she learns her first color.

 

The little girl wants to know more and take the height? Never mind ! At the top of the trees she finds herself for her second contact with our colorful world. She is initiated to the green of nature, and also to the altitude. Perched on its branch it can have a better vision of the world.

 

Higher I want to go! To know is to rise! My treasure is certainly in the firmament! The duo climbs the heavens to the sun. The third color is assimilated. The joy of attaining this level of education makes them masters of everything.

 

The bulimic child is drunk with fruit juice. She absorbs knowledge, drinks it, feeds on it. The orange is acquired.

 

Has she found so high what she was looking for? After a dizzy fall, the frenzy ends in the middle of a field of poppies, well on earth. Soothed, she discovers that even at the level of the ground she can continue to learn, she perceives the magnificence of the red that surrounds her.

 

So it is a little serene being who decides to go to the center of the world to find the famous treasure that it must bring back. In the middle of a shimmering cave and tinged with violet, it finds it in the form of a crystal. And that's where his quest ends. She now knows most of the colors. She found her truth, not at the light years of the earth, but at the deepest of herself. She becomes aware that the heart of men is the most beautiful of the jewels, that nature is beautiful, that the essential is very close to us if we dig a little.