A Colorful Symphony

"There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself — not just sometimes but always. When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in ... Nothing really interested him — least of all the things that should have." - from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I’ve been reading a delightful book to my 8 year old called ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ which was written by Norton Juster - an author with probably the best name I have ever heard.

It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do, drives through it in his toy car, transporting him to the Kingdom of Wisdom, once prosperous but now troubled.

There is a chapter titled ‘A Colorful Symphony’ where Milo stumbles into a land where he discovers an enormous orchestra who are in the midst of playing and yet there is no sound.

“I don’t hear any music,” said Milo

“That’s right,” said Alec; “You don’t listen to this concert - you watch it. Now pay attention"."

Milo gradually discovers that the orchestra are playing, or creating, all the colors of the world and how they work together in every conceivable combination. For example, at first they are playing the colors of the sunset;

The last colors slowly faded from the western sky, and, as they did, one by one the instruments stopped, until only the base fiddles, in their somber slow movement, were left to play the night and a single set of silver bells brightened the constellations. The conductor let his arms fall limply at his sides and stood quite still as darkness claimed the forest.

Milo gets to meet the conductor whose name is ’Chroma the great’ I know right? Awesome.

I adore it when you’re reading something and it’s ticking every box in your brain so you kind of slow down to slurp up the words because you don’t want to miss a single drop. The way that Mr Juster describes color throughout this chapter, you can see the hues in your mind, feel the tones tickling your optic nerves.

Remember as well that I’m reading this out loud to my son, we are both reading / hearing these words for the first time. I was creatively salivating while I was reading this to him and maybe he heard that while he was listening because when I looked at him he had the twinkle of awe in his eyes. He was in the same world as me.

The chapter has so much fun with Milo questioning ‘How hard can it really be’ to conduct colors and it’s a beautifully descriptive celebration of color and how it feeds our world.

I’m reminded by that about the best piece of advice I was given when I was learning to color correct and grade. My mentor said ‘Go to the park, look at the leaves. Soak up all the different hues of green. Nature is the best teacher’ - what a perfect piece of advice to give someone who is overwhelmed by lacing up telecine machines, interpreting scopes and learning the difference between black and grey.

The book ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ is a brilliant piece of literature and if you haven’t read it then please track it down.

It occurred to me as I started to write this, just how many lovely books about color I have read to the kids. I know I’m a colorist but it honestly wasn’t a conscious decision.

From the photo you can see how filthy this book is after being read by 2 kids over 8 years but ‘Colors’ by Orla Kiely is a super simple book that you can read through with your toddler and simply ask ‘what color is this’? Eventually the little ones start to name the colors. But, the book really confuses me - or maybe I’m getting a little picky because the colors don’t always correlate to the objects. My poor kids, I must drive them crazy.

A red elephant. It's not just me is it?

One of my favorites kids books about color steps into the world of the ‘other’ colors - I adore this and I adore the fact that someone was smart enough to realize that kids should learn more than just primary colors.

This book is genius. The front cover alone got me so intrigued. My kids were super selfish and took ages looking at the book before they’d let me have a go. They’d even opened all of the flaps.

As you work your way through the book you are introduced to alternate colors. If you open the flap for, say, the monkey - is it green? Are they going to tell me about the color green? No, it's much more rewarding than that.

It’s Chartreuse! That would have been enough but they even describe the color so well. This book is awesome.

Ok, so you get the idea. There are some amazing books for kids on color out there. These are just some of the ones I’ve got but I’ve seen even more at the book store but I could tell that maybe it was time to stop.

I want to leave you with one more book though okay? This book is beyond special.

The Black Book of Colors examines the nature of color and our sense experiences more broadly.

The Black Book of Colors, written by Menena Cottin and illustrated by Rosana Faria, is about a boy named Thomas describing the way different colors taste, feel, smell, and sound. Written in English as well as Braille, the book allows readers to experience the world as someone without sight might. The book also includes the opportunity to feel some of the things the color is referring to.

I’m not even going to try to explain the importance and wonder of this book. When I first read it I couldn’t talk, i felt stunned. It is one of the most incredible ideas. The very concept of conveying color - I take for granted the luxury of being able to see, I take for granted that I am not color blind and I can enjoy every color that Chroma The Great ever conducted into existence. This book doesn’t just celebrate color, it celebrates what’s inside color.

As a colorist it’s my job to get inside peoples heads and extract the look or the colors that they can see. What’s green to you might be yellow to me or chartreuse to someone else. That’s what makes color so magical - it’s not just what we see, it how we experience it.

Please lots of books on color, for kids and for yourself. Yes, there’s even books about color for grown ups.

This article first appeared in my blog via the vincenttaylor.tv website.

?

#color #colour #booksoncolor #kidsbooksareawesome #kidsbooks