All the Colors of the Earth.

All the Colors of the Earth

    

Author:  Sheila Hamanaka 

Illustrator: Sheila Hamanaka 

Date Published: 1994

About the book: All the Colors of the Earth was inspired by the author's own two children's multi-ethnic  heritage and grew to reflect the richness of all the colors children bring to the world. 

Summary: All the Colors of the Earth reveals in verses that despite outward differences, children everywhere are essentially the same and all are lovable. The brightly colored, poetic picture book celebrates love and the diversity of children through simple but effective words and images of the earth. 

Genre: Like the diverse children in the book, this book is diverse and crosses several genres. The genres of this book are; poetry and verse, non-fiction, and picturebook. The dominant genre, I believe, is picturebook. Picturebook can be define as "A format in which art and text are interdependent." (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe. 2010, p.12) There are pictures on every page and these pictures are important. The verses of the text depends on them to relay meaning and make sense of what is being read. The text of this book is written in verses. This is what led me to conclude that the book falls under the poetry and verse genre. Lastly, the book gives information about a subject- the many colors of children's skin- and is supported with facts. Nonfiction can be defined as "Informational books that explain a subject or concept using facts about the real world." (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe. 2010, p.12) 

Illustration: The bright oil colors of the illustration captivate the readers as they move from page to page. The illustrator did an excellent job tying in the pictures to the text as they are interdependent to convey meaning. The color scheme and images used to describe the many tone of children's skin represents nature and everything in it. The images used are of things children know and can relate to. The illustration has all the elements of visual arts with different lines that directs the readers eyes, vivid textures, complementing colors, unique design, and different shapes. 

Motivational Activity: 

Before Reading: 

• Ask children to describe their physical appearance.
• Pair children and asked them to discuss what makes them different from and same to their partner. 
• Ask children to say something unique or special about them self.
• Ask children to say something unique/special about a friend. 

After Reading: 

• Give each child a different color crayon and ask the class; 
• How are you the same? (Ans- they all have a crayon)
• How are you different? (Ans-  they all have a different color) 

Ask children to draw a picture using only their crayon. Once the drawing activity is completed, ask children to talk about their individual drawing. Next, provide children with a poster with a scene drawn on it and a key. Children will look for their color on the key and color their part on the scene. The end product should be a beautiful picture.  Mount the picture on the wall and paste the individual pictures around it. Compare and contrast the pictures. Explain to children that although they are different- relate this to the different crayon colors- they all play a vital role in the bigger picture- the world. Making it unique when it comes to their individually and beautiful when they come together.   

Personal Opinion: Personal, I think that this book is a very good book and I would recommend it to everyone. We live in a diverse world with people of all color, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age, height, weight, culture, ability, etc. This book helps us teach the children of the future that even though we are different on the outside, we are still the same. We all love, laugh, and live. This book can be used to teach differences, similarities, acceptance, individuality and togetherness. I love that it does not have a main character but that everyone plays an integral role and that children can see them-self in the book through the many characters. 

Other books by the Author: 

• I Look like a Girl 
• The Journey
• Peace Crane
• Screen of Frogs: An old Tale

References: 

Hamanaka, S. (1994). All the colors of the Earth. New York: Morrow Junior Books.

 

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.