The Color Kittens
The Color Kittens is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, and published, as part of the Little Golden Books series, in 1949.
 First edition | |
| Author | Margaret Wise Brown |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Alice and Martin Provensen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Little Golden Books |
Publication date | 1949 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 24 |
| ISBN | 0-307-10234-3 |
| OCLC | 42383466 |
| [E] 21 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.B8163 Cm 2000 |
Plot
The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts lead to a variety of different hues—none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!"
Publication history
- The Color Kittens, 1949, USA, Simon and Schuster OCLC 1392362
- The Colour Kittens, 1973, Australia, Golden Press OCLC 607091308
- The Color Kittens, (Kathi Ember, illustrator) 1994, USA, Western Publishing ISBN 9780307302175
- The Color Kittens, 2003, USA, Random House ISBN 9780307021410
Reception
Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that, "In a way, the book was written to teach facts about color, but its real subject is the huge pleasure to be found in the seeing and feeling of color [...]".[1] Suzanne Rahn notes that Hush and Brush's active creativity and exploration have some parallels among Brown's other cat characters, such as the drastically less-humanized Pussycat, who are much more passive in their representation of the creative state Brown called “Cat Life”.[2]
References
- Zelinsky, Paul O. (2005). The Art of Reading. Compiled by Reading is Fundamental. Dutton Books. p. 62. ISBN 0-525-47484-6.
- Rahn, Suzanne. "Cat-Quest: A Symbolic Animal in Margaret Wise Brown". Children’s Literature: Volume 22, 1994 (Copyright 1994 Hollins College). Project MUSE. Retrieved 2009-08-09.