The black book of colors

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The black book of colors is a picture book about colors and their perception. The book with the text by Menena Cottin and pictures by Rosana Faría was published in Mexico in 2006 under the Spanish title El libro negro de los colores by Ediciónes Tecolote , the German translation by Helga Preugschat in 2008 by Fischer Schatzinsel . What is special is that the book is aimed at both sighted and blind children.

Content and design

Different colors are presented on ten double pages. Thomas, the narrator, characterizes each color in a short sentence in which he describes what he associates with the color. This can be the taste or smell of an object that has this color, but it can also be feelings or sounds. For him, among other things, red is “as sweet as a strawberry”.

The book does not tell a continuous plot, so that the individual colors stand side by side independently, but their sequence partly relates to one another. The blue of the sky is followed by the white of the clouds and finally the color of the rainbow.

The text is embossed in Braille on the left and printed below in white on a black background. On the right side there is a picture that is shown in relief with black lacquer, also on a black background, so that it can be felt and viewed.

The book ends with an overview of the Braille alphabet.

There is also an audio book version in DAISY format for the book .

reception

The book has received critical acclaim, won a number of awards, and has been translated into 18 languages.

In Italy, the book received the Bologna Ragazzi Award in the New Horizons category in 2007 . The jury praised the “educational and ethical character” and the “sober graphic elegance”. The book overcomes barriers between sighted and blind.

The New York Times Book Review named the book to the list of Best Illustrated Children's Books in2008. Leonard S. Marcus described the book as "intellectually challenging", "graphically remarkable" and "elegant". It reminds the reader that we are in the dark much of our time and that the imagination can serve as a third eye.

Jens Thiele was fascinated by the book in his review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and praised its "bibliophile presentation". Many thanks to the book already for bringing black, the color that is traditionally avoided in picture books as too dark and gloomy, to the fore. In this context, however, he also criticizes the fact that it “unintentionally paints the picture of blindness blacker than it is”.

In Austria, the book was honored with a toad of the month in 2009 . Kathrin Wexberg emphasized that "it is not the deficit of being blind that [is] emphasized, but rather the wealth of sensory perceptions that are nevertheless possible".

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Menena Cottin: The Black Book of Colors. Accessed June 18, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Biblioteca Salaborsa Ragazzi: 2007. February 25, 2008, accessed on June 18, 2018 (Italian).
  3. ^ Leonard S. Marcus: 'The Monster Who Ate Darkness' and 'The Black Book of Colors' . ( nytimes.com [accessed June 18, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Jens Thiele: How does green smell? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 3, 2009. Quoted from buecher.de
  5. ↑ Kathrin Wexberg and others: Toad Archive 2009. In: STUBE. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .

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