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This is a book my sister owns and I thought it was great for what we were talking about in this class. I did do research to find out when the book was published and it said 1966. I tried to do more research, but all that came up for me was book reviews and to buy the book. Other then that I didn't find anything else, which made me very sad actually. I wanted to know more about the author. The story is of the world having many different things, people and colors, and that we see these things with our eyes. But to understand what love is we have to see that with our hearts.
I would definitely use this book with young children. This story has a great meaning about being nice to all people and not looking on the outside (skin color, way someone talks, etc.), but to look at the inside, at what love looks like.
As I was skimming through the 10 ways handout I was looking at what I could find in this book that was on this list. There were some stereotypes, but it was apart of the story. It was in no way to insult the children, but to tell a the story. As you will see below I posted a picture of said page. You can decide for yourself weather or not it's stereotypical or not.
I think that the only sort of racist remake about the book is that it all seems to be white children in here, but some of the pages don't have any color on them, so the author could have made it that way to keep an open mind. Number three on the 10 ways handout asked if I saw any minority in the book or not. I think that is hard to say because you do see farm like clothing and non farm like clothing on the children, but it looks like they're all "middle class" for when the book probably would have taken place in the authors mind.
Number four, as I said earlier there were only white people, but other pages had no color at all to them. So I would say it was up to the imagination of the reader. With all said white children in the book I feel like children of other races and ethnicity might feel offended later in life, but if they are actually reading the book and listening to the words it is talking about not looking at outside appearances, but on the inside where feelings and love are. The children in the story don't look rich or poor, they look happy (10 ways, number 4).
I think the characters aren't depicted as caricatures at all, but as individuals. It doesn't follow stereotypes too much, other then the picture I posted above, but that is also for others to decide for themselves. No one in this story has power or wisdom either, it is talking about what we see with our eyes and what we feel with our hearts. The narrative and pictures used show that everyone is different, but that we should get along. On the last two pages of the book is says:
"An apple is red, the sun is yellow, the sky is blue, a leaf is green,
a cloud is white...and the earth is brown.
And, if I asked you, could you tell me...
what color is love?"
This is a great lesson for children so they can possibly get a grasp on how to treat others.
All in all this was a very heart warming book that made me smile at how cute it was, I would highly recommend this book to parents to read to their children because of how the story has kids looking at things that they know (the colors of the sky, sun, a leaf, etc.) and having them look at something bigger, love for others.
References:
10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children’s Books For Racism and Sexism
What is love by Joan Walsh Anglund
