Pomelo Explores Color by Ramona Bădescu, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud

Really, Pomelo Explores Color is more of a poetic mediation than the teaching book you might expect it to be. Because of this, it is also a perfect read-out that will no doubt inspire conversation and creativity. The book begins, "When everything begins to seem black and white, Pomelo looks around and suddenly rediscovers... The silent white of the blank page... The infinite white of winter... The foamy white of hot milk... The comforting white of his favorite dandelion...."
Bădescue continues through the spectrum in this meaningful, meandering way, making some wonderful connections, all of which are brought to life by Chaud's sometimes kooky vision and the little pink garden elephant. From the "always different yellow of wee-wee" and the "mustard-yellow pang that goes up your nose" to the "speeding orange of shredded carrots," the "promising red of ripening strawberries" and "mysterious blue of dreams," Pomelo takes us down a varied path.
My favorite chain of colors descriptors comes near the end of the book with grey. Bădescu makes her way from the "green-grey of rot," which is accompanied by an illustration of half a lemon that is being taken over by the dusty grey-green-white powdery mold to the "deflating grey of disappointment," by way of the "silver-grey of pencil sketches," past the "grey of things you can't quite remember" to the "happy grey of rain," as seen above.
More Pomelo books that might someday make
their way across the Atlantic in translation:



Source: Review Copy