Before Colors
Where Pigments and Dyes Come From
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From award-winning author Annette Bay Pimentel and illustrator Madison Safer, Before Colors is an oversize nonfiction picture book exploring pigments and dyes made from natural sources—across time and around the world.
Colors don’t come out of nothing.
They always start somewhere . . .
With something . . .
With someone.
Discover how color is harnessed from nature in this survey of dyes and pigments from around the world. Organized by color—from yellow to purple to red and more—Before Colors marries a lyrical core text with tons of informational material for curious readers.
In the narrative text, readers will encounter markers and artists as they source and process materials, transforming the most unexpected things into vibrant pigments and dyes. The sidebars offer much more to discover, including extensive lists of specific shades, short bios of colorful characters, and more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Why does the blue morpho butterfly appear to be such a brilliant shade? Why did Van Gogh love yellow so much? This encyclopedic text delves into an entire spectrum of questions surrounding how people create, see, and think about color. Sections ingeniously organized around different hues detail how interpretation of color is a product of perception, language, and culture, and introduce readers to "colorful characters" themed to the respective shades—along with Van Gogh, there's Oaxacan weaver Juana Gutiérrez Contreras, who created natural dyes based on ancestral Zapotec traditions, and the Switzer brothers, who invented safety orange. Bay Pimentel's conversational prose and Safer's dramatic watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations make for vivid information grazing. Ages 8–12.
