Black All Around

by Patricia Hubbell, Don Tate (Illustrator)

Overview

A young girl discovers all the wonderful and beautiful things around her that are black.

Look high,
look low,
look everywhere ...
The wonderful color black is there!

Join a young girl as she discovers all the wonderful things around her that are black.

The letters that live
on each page of a book.
The hole in the ground
that's a little mole's nook.
The gleaming paint on a limousine.
The braided hair of a stately queen.

The fun and excitement never stop in this joyous and playful book. So what are you waiting for? Come celebrate Black All Around!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600606434
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	04/01/2003
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,144,810
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Patricia Hubbell has been writing for children for almost forty years. She is the author of numerous award-winning picture books, poetry books, and easy readers, and her poems appear in more than two hundred anthologies, textbooks, and magazines. Among her recent, popular books are Bouncing Time (HarperCollins, 2000) and Sidewalk Trip (HarperCollins, 1999). A full-time writer, Hubbell lives in Easton, Connecticut, with her husband. To find out more about Patricia Hubbell, visit her website: www.kidspoet.com.

Don Tate is an award-winning author, and the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children. He is the recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award and the Carter G. Woodson Book Award. Tate and his family live in Austin, Texas. You can visit him online at dontate.com and follow him on social media at @devas_T.

Editorial Reviews

Triple Crown Awards, National Christian School Association

From the Publisher

Relayed through the perspective of an African-American girl, Hubbell's (Bouncing Time) slim poem celebrates "the wonderful color black." Verse and pictures introduce an array of black items ranging from the tangible ("A big workhorse./ Some cats, of course./ Glossy beetles./ Busy ants./ The clothes men wear to a fancy dance") to the ethereal ("Like the back of a dream of stars and moon/ that floats through your head on an afternoon/ when you take a nap in a big old chair") to the personal ("Velvet soft./ Satin sleek./ Daddy's arm./ Momma's cheek"). The black objects stand out sharply against Tate's (Summer Sun Risin') brassy palette. In addition to the high-voltage colors, Tate also stylizes his perspectives and his figures. Heads are outsize, almost as large as the torsos, and the eyes are so wide apart as to triangulate each face. The artist does a good job varying the settings, supplying both fantasy and homelike backdrops that incorporate the images from the text. The closing pages show the girl cozy in her bed, with many of the aforementioned items wafting through her dreams. Ages 3-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 3-Exuberant acrylic paintings keep the pages turning in this African-American girl's imaginative ode to the color black. In both rhyming and free-form verses, she reflects on the many wondrous black objects in her world: "Crayons./Crickets./The bottom of the sea./The empty place where a tooth should be." The double-page illustrations combine imaginary scenes with more realistic moments, and show the child interacting with her brother and her parents. The storytime crowd will enjoy the dreamy artwork and playful text. The heroine's peaceful slumber at the story's end also makes for a comforting bedtime read. A satisfying addition.-Ajoke' T. I. Kokodoko, Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

This earnest story told in rhyme focuses on things that are black in color, as seen through the eyes of a little African-American girl. Hubbell (Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble!, 2003, etc.) provides a disparate collection of items (a limousine, black cats, crickets) and concepts (the inside of a pocket, the night sky, "the empty place where a tooth should be") that are black (or dark brown) in color. The cheerfully celebratory concept of black as a "sleek and jazzy, warm and cozy" color is a bit forced, and the rhyme scheme is not consistent throughout the volume, causing a rather jarring effect when the text is read aloud. Due to the demands of the rhyming word pairs, many items are in juxtaposition that have no logical relationship to each other or to the child narrator, but Tate (Summer Sun Risin', 2002, etc.) creatively solves these design challenges with his illustrations. His acrylic paintings flow across double-page spreads, filled with swirling lines, varied perspectives, and neon bright shades to balance out the black items under discussion. The little girl's family is also included in the illustrations, with a smiling dad who looks quite a bit like the illustrator's photo on the back flap. The author's rhymes try hard to make black an intriguing, special shade, but it is Tate's vibrant art that pulls the concept together. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews