Picture Book Review of The Color Kittens

First published in 1949, The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon, is a delightful tale about two kittens named Brush and Hush with green eyes. Dressed like house painters, Brush and Hush have buckets and buckets and buckets of paint--all the colors of the world!

Brush and Hush love to mix colors together by splashing colors into one another. However, the playful kittens have  a problem: they cannot make green. 

On their quest to find green, they mix colors together and produce all kinds of colors. Brush and Hush love each color they produce by mixing colors. An accident that knocks paint buckets over, spilling colors everywhere creates brown. Brown is exciting to them, too. 

Finally, the adorable kittens get so pouncy that they knock over all the buckets, creating all the colors in the whole world. 

The Color Kittens is one of my favorite picture books. I love Mrs. Brown's writing--it's playful, exciting, and fun. I love the illustrations. Everything is so bright and colorful! I love how much Brush and Hush love to play and get so excited over each color discovery. 

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Your children will love hearing your read this book aloud and looking at all the illustrations. They will love the rhythm of the words in the story and the excitement Brush and Hush have for discovering new colors. They will probably ask you to read it again and again until they memorize the story like my children did. Then they will "read" it to themselves. 

Will they realize that they are learning science and art? Will they realize that mixing colors is a STEM topic? Will they be excited to mix their own colors and make exciting discoveries like Brush and Hush? 

This book is delightful and educational! What more could you want from a picture book. Over fifty years old, I doubt this book will ever go out of style. Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will love this book, too. 

Happy Reading Aloud!
​Meredith Curtis

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