The Color Connection

What happens when primary color characters are caught in a rainstorm with their secondary neighbors? The Color Connection! When Mr. Purple initiates a plan to unite his town of black and white the results are magical. This book is an ideal educational tool as well as an easy bed time read. It could be hard cover with a small trim size and 22 pages in length with a pull out lesson plan and rhythmic rhyme for teachers or parents. At a modest price point of $14.95. I grew up an only child whose father's job was technical but his persuasion was artistic. Spare time was spent writing, building, crafting, and painting - so art materials were always available. Perhaps the seed for this book was planted way back then when using watercolors, I would NEED green and he would magically make it happen by mixing blue and yellow. Or maybe, after earning my art/education degree from Western Michigan University, the seed germinated while teaching art in Lansing's inner city, the suburbs of Detroit, and finally Northern Michigan. No matter the locale, when introducing a unit on painting, color mixing was magic. Children everywhere loved the experimentation - the process - and the product - new clear vibrant colors from combining the basic three plus black and white. Of course muddy brown can also be the result of overly enthusiastic mixing, but that is OK too. So, the idea's been evolving - a book to introduce colors - primary and secondary and their possibilities, but as I wrote in collaboration with my daughter Lisa, it became so much more. The underlying theme is really tolerance and acceptance. This book is a perfect way, through the excitement of color mixing, to initiate this discussion about inclusion and the concept that everything works better if we embrace the connection instead of focusing on our differences, which is so imperative especially today. If we work together we can accomplish anything - we can make magic.