Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: A little book about colors by Leo Lionni and Jan Gerardi

This board book is part of a series called Leo Lionni's Friends, which uses Lionni's art and is inspired by his work to create new titles. There is no author listed.

Each spread features a different color and shows that color "in action" with one of Lionni's familiar grey mice. The layout alternates; The first page on the left has the color, slightly darker, against a background. So RED is a dark red against a bright red background. On the right, there is a simple sentence using the color, in this case a mouse with "a bright red balloon," walking along green grass with a little red ladybug and two red flowers. The second layout and spread features blue, with the art stretching across the page, focusing on a blue pool. The layouts alternate this way through yellow, green, pink, black, purple, gray, white, brown, and orange. The second to last page shows all the things from the book with the legend "Colors are beautiful" and the final spread shows a little gray mouse painting a rainbow.

Some stand-out spreads include the gray one, which shows a little mouse running with a flag and the word "ME!" and a love spread of white "fluffy dandelions floating in the air" against a light yellow background.

Verdict: This is a loving homage to a powerful author and illustrator, one is too little-known today, as well as a delightful early concept book. Sure to please little ones, this is a definitely a must-have for your shelves.

ISBN: 9780525582298; Published May 2019 by Random House; Borrowed from another library in my consortium