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A review by librariandest
They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki
4.0
The art is five stars. Gorgeous. On the first few reads, though, the story left me like huh? I thought it was a story about colors, about seasons, which is what I expected. But then it was about a girl turning into a tree and the ending didn't click for me.
On the surface, this is hardly a story at all (to be fair, a great many picture books don't really have stories -- just sequences). It took me several reads before I was like oh damn I think I get it maybe. They say blue is the color of the sky. And at the end of the book the sky is this bold red and orange dotted with black crows. Nice. How do we perceive the world around us? For that matter, how do crows perceive it?
So I think it takes some work to appreciate the text, but that's pretty true of most good poems and good art. I think this book could start some very interesting conversations with kids. And I do like books that ask a lot of questions.
On the surface, this is hardly a story at all (to be fair, a great many picture books don't really have stories -- just sequences). It took me several reads before I was like oh damn I think I get it maybe. They say blue is the color of the sky. And at the end of the book the sky is this bold red and orange dotted with black crows. Nice. How do we perceive the world around us? For that matter, how do crows perceive it?
So I think it takes some work to appreciate the text, but that's pretty true of most good poems and good art. I think this book could start some very interesting conversations with kids. And I do like books that ask a lot of questions.