The Black Book of Colors (review)

"Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick's feathers." So begins this creative exploration into color conveyed non-visually, with each spread presenting Thomas' characterization of a different color, always evoking it through taste, smell, feel, or sound, never appearance it's likely but never stated that Thomas is blind. The pages, all black save for the white text (though the jacket does offer some lighter-toned graphic linework as well as lettering), use black-on-black spot lamination to convey color without color, with delicate traceries of feathers, cheerfully fringed kites, and spotty raindrops making themselves felt as well as seen; spot lamination also provides a Braille transcription of the text above the Roman-alphabet version (the Braille alphabet is included in back). Though the text is a little catalogue-ish, this is an elegant and artistic project, and it's sure to elicit some contemplation and discussion from young audiences. Ultimately, though, the aesthetic enterprise actually privileges the visual rather than conveying sightless experience, with all the sensual evocations of colors tightly tied to objects possessing the relevant hue, and the Braille isn't sufficiently raised to be genuinely read via fingertip. The gleaming black lines on black backgrounds are less tactilely than visually interesting, since they're a little samey to touch and not particularly evocative of the sensations the text describes; they do, though, offer new realms to explore for visually impaired kids left out of the fun of most picture-book pages.