Green won a Caldecott Honour in 2013. This book has just 27 words! Yes, 27 but it is such a powerful exploration of the colour green. As you can see from the title Laura uses a simple font and inside you will see most pages have only two words. There are tiny cutout holes to explore on each page which hint at the next image.
Here is the text: forest green, sea green, lime green, pea green, green, green, fern green, wacky green, slow green, faded green, glow green, shaded green, all green, never green, no green, forever green.
With a group of older students you could ask them to predict or even create a page to match each of these tiny text fragments. Then you should watch this exquisite video of the whole book.
Green won the
Giverny Award in 2013.
The Giverny Award is an annual children's science picture book award. From the award criteria:
The book must teach its young reader at least one important scientific principle well, or encourage the reader toward specific science-related attitudes, pursuits, or inquiries. AND
All other factors being equal, books about plants and/or plant science or biology will have preference. I was excited to see our Australian book illustrator Jeannie Baker won this award for her book
Hidden Forest in 2003.
The entire book is about different shades and types of green — a humble, yet brilliant, idea to begin with. And with the richly painted illustrations, the book is like a breath of fresh, crisp air. The die-cuts in it are so subtle that sometimes you miss them altogether, and they blend beautifully with the concept and into the pictures. The Picture Book Lab
Each two-page spread reveals another clever interpretation of the colour green, from pea pod green to sea turtle green, faded green and even no green-a colour challenged snowman. Seeger’s sense of humour is throughout the book, including an illustration of a stop sign, with the caption never green. 32Pages: a passion for Picture Books.
The generous use of paint and visible brushstrokes makes the artwork appear nearly tactile. SLJ
Green, along with Red and Blue are books you could share with a very young child but they would also be perfect for an art class in Primary and High School.
One last thing about the making of this and really any book - especially picture books - is that every single image and every single word needs to be carefully chosen, and as a creator it’s important to be able to admit when a word or a piece of art isn’t working for whatever reason.
Here are some other books by Laura Vaccaro Seeger:
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