Swatch: The girl who loved color by Julia Denos

I have long adored Julia Denos' lovely illustrations in picture books and chapter books and now, finally, she has her own book. Appropriately enough, it is an exuberant celebration of color.

Swatch is a wild girl who lives in a place of wild colors. She tames the colors and teaches them to do magical things but one day she captures Just-Laid Blue in a jar. Soon she is capturing all the colors and it's only when Yellowest Yellow makes her stop and think that she remembers the colors are even better and more wonderful when they are wild.

Denos' language is simple and lovely, but it's really secondary to the gorgeous, stunning, exuberant COLORS. Swatch's messy black hair, tamed with a splash of color that can work as a mask, cape, or hairband, captures her wildness. And the colors...oh the colors. I can hardly find words to describe them. Dozens of colors, splashing across the pages, filling jars, exploding across the page, exploding into barely-formed images, swooping like birds....you just have to read and love it for yourself.

Verdict: A little long for a storytime, but perfect to accompany a program on colors, paint, or just to read and pore over again and again, enjoying the lovely art.

ISBN: 9780062366382; Published 2016 by Balzer + Bray; Purchased for the library