Colors

Picture Books 

• Board Books: Durable titles on sturdy pages designed for little hands that introduce numbers and simple color concepts. 
• Picture Books: A selection of picture books for all ages with different colorful adventures. 
• World Language Materials: A selection of picture books for all ages in various languages. 
• Children’s Nonfiction: A selection of titles exploring simple colors and art concepts designed for younger readers. 
• Theme Backpacks: Host a storytime at home using these backpacks, which include books, manipulatives, and other resources related to a particular theme. 
• STEAM Kits: Explore concepts using these kits, which include books and manipulatives to encourage hands-on exploration. 
• Launchpads: Pre-loaded tablets with games and educational activities to help young learners practice their colors. 
• Wonderbooks: Print books with pre-loaded audio content bound into the cover. Enjoy hearing your favorite color stories read aloud as you turn the pages. 
• DVDs: A selection of DVDs related to learning your colors. Many titles are based on picture books. 
• eContent: Electronic books, audiobooks, free streaming videos, and similar resources related to colors. 

Scroll to the bottom of the page to print this list or head back to our #MoreThanBooks Recommendations List

Cat’s Colors by Airlie Anderson 
What better thing to do on a gray day than collect some colors? Cat decides to do just that, but where will she find them? 

Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinall 
Six little penguins named after flowers and plants decide to paint a beautiful picture on the ice for their mother – and end up with paint all over themselves. 

Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin 
Playful monsters combine their favorite crayons, red, yellow, and blue, to create new colors, including one never before seen. 

White Rabbit’s Color Book by Alan Baker 
White Rabbit hops from one paint pot to another, changing colors as he goes, until he ends up brown. 

Little Green Peas: A Big Book of Colors by Keith Baker 
Little green peas make their way into collections of objects of many different colors, from blue boats, seas, and flags, to orange balloons, umbrellas, and fizzy drinks. 

Night Train, Night Train by Robert Burleigh 
Told in rhyming text, a train speeds through the night, revealing the sights and colors along the way to its young and sleepy riders. 

Cat’s Colors by Jane Cabrera 
A cat describes ten different colors and tells which one is its favorite. 

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle 
Rather than use the same old colors, a child paints animals and objects in a variety of different hues. Includes biographical information about the German painter Franz Marc, who created unconventional animal paintings in the early 1900s. 

Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle 
Guests at Little Frog’s birthday party include the red fox, the purple butterfly, the orange cat, and other colorful animals. The illustrations are designed to demonstrate the concept of complementary colors. 

Kitten Red, Yellow, Blue by Peter Catalanotto 
After placing the red kitten with Dave the firefighter and the blue kitten with Francine the police officer, Mrs. Tuttle finds homes for fourteen other colorful kittens. Sixteen calico kittens – the number of colors in a crayon box. Their mother, Sophie, knows one from another…but how do you think Mrs. Tuttle tells those kittens apart? 

Neon Leon by Jane Clarke 
Everyone knows that chameleons are the best at fitting in. But not Leon. Leon is neon! In fact, he’s SO bright that he keeps all the other chameleons awake at night. But poor Leon is lonely, so he goes off in search of somewhere he can blend in. In this delightful interactive book, filled with vibrant neon artwork, children can help Leon on his journey by counting his steps, sending him to sleep and giving him lots of reassurance when he’s feeling down. But will he ever find a place he can fit in? 

Freight Train by Donald Crews 
Brief text and illustrations trace the journey of a colorful train as it goes through tunnels, by cities, and over trestles. 

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt 
When Duncan arrives at school one morning, he finds a stack of letters, one from each of his crayons, complaining about how he uses them. 

Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color by Julia Denos 
Swatch is a girl who is passionate about color. 

Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story about Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd 
In this colorful story of a sloppy dog, you can count on a happy ending. As he goes through the day, Dog gains an increasing number of differently colored spots on his previously white coat. 

Warthogs Paint: A Messy Color Book by Pamela Duncan Edwards 
As some warthogs spend a rainy day painting their kitchen, they make a mess and learn about mixing colors. 

Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert 
Introduces colors and shapes with illustrations of shapes on die-cut pages that form animal faces when placed on top of one another. 

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert 
A mother and child plant a rainbow of flowers in the family garden. 

Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell 
On a rainy summer day, three children and their grandpa pick vegetables in his garden and then cook and share a delicious meal of his famous Rainbow Stew. Includes recipe. 

Kid Tea by Elizabeth Ficocelli 
On every night of the week, a new color of “kid tea” is created in the bath, depending on the activities of the day. 

Lunch by Denise Fleming 
A very hungry mouse eats a large lunch comprised of colorful foods.  

Maggie and Michael Get Dressed by Denise Fleming 
It is time to get dressed and Michael counts on his dog, Maggie, for help as he places yellow socks, a brown hat, blue pants, and other colorful articles of clothing where they belong. 

Where Is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox 
A story about many different sheep, and one that seems to be missing.  

Red House, Tree House, Little Bitty Brown Mouse by Jane Godwin  
In this rhyming story, a young mouse makes her way around the world, introducing colors. 

It’s an Orange Aardvark! by Michael Hall 
A carpenter ant drills a hole to see what is outside his stump, worrying his fellow ants, and when new holes reveal different colors they fabricate a story about the horrible beast that will soon attack. 

Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall 
Red’s factory-applied label clearly says that he is red, but despite the best efforts of his teacher, fellow crayons and art supplies, and family members, he cannot seem to do anything right until a new friend offers a fresh perspective. 

My Garden by Kevin Henkes 
After helping her mother weed, water, and chase the rabbits from their garden, a young girl imagines her dream garden complete with jellybean bushes, chocolate rabbits, and tomatoes the size of beach balls. 

Every Color Soup by Jorey Hurley 
Describes how to make a colorful, delicious vegetable soup. Includes recipe. 

Red Green Blue: A First Book of Colors by Alison Jay 
Characters from nursery rhymes populate this tale, which highlights the colorful aspects of the familiar poems. Includes a key to the nursery rhymes referenced in the story. 

Color Dance by Ann Jonas 
Three dancers show how colors combine to create different colors. 

The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar 
Harpreet Singh has a different color for every mood and occasion, from pink for dancing to bhangra beats to red for courage. He especially takes care with his patka – his turban – smoothing it out and making sure it always matches his outfit. But when Harpreet’s mom finds a new job in a snowy city and they have to move, all he wants is to be invisible. Will he ever feel a happy sunny yellow again? 

Every Color by Erin Eitter Kono 
A girl teaches a polar bear to see the colors in his environment as they take a trip around the world. 

Little Blue and Little Yellow: A Story for Pippo and Ann and Other Children by Leo Lionni 
Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends, but one day they can’t find each other. When they finally do, they give each other such a big hug that they turn green! How they find their true colors again concludes a wonderfully satisfying story told with colorful pieces of torn paper and very few words. 

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni 
A little chameleon is distressed that he doesn’t have his own color like other animals. 

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin 
Pete the Cat gets into colorful adventures while out walking in his new white shoes. 

The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas 
Emotions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and calm, are described through the actions of a monster sorting them out. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin 
Children see a variety of animals, each one a different color, and a teacher looking at them. 

The Hidden Rainbow by Christie Matheson 
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text invite the reader to uncover the rainbow of colors hidden in a garden, which helps flowers bloom and bees find food. Includes facts about bees and their importance. 

I Know a Wee Piggy by Kim Norman 
A cumulative, rhyming tale of an ordinary pig who leaps out of his boy’s arms at a state fair and wallows in color after color, turning himself into a work of art. 

Sky Color by Peter Reynolds 
Marisol loves to paint.  So when her teacher asks her to help make a mural for the school library, she can’t wait to begin! But wait – how can Marisol ever make a sky without blue paint? After gazing out the bus window and watching from her porch as day turns into night, she closes her eyes and starts to dream. 

Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger 
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text celebrate the many shades of blue seen during the relationship of a boy and his dog as the boy grows from a baby to an adult. 

Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger 
Explores different colors by allowing readers to change an object or animal’s color from unusual to common by turning the die-cut pages. 

Festival of Colors by Kabir Sehgal 
Siblings Chintoo and Mintoo collect flowers and press the petals into a fine powder as they prepare for Holi, the Indian springtime Festival of Colors. Includes author’s note. 

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman 
The names of colors are woven into unrhymed poems that celebrate the seasons. 

Baby Shoes by Dashka Slater 
After taking a walk with his mother, Baby’s new white shoes with the blue stripe are covered with a variety of colors. 

Pirate Nap: A Book of Colors by Danna Smith 
Two brothers use their imaginations to turn their surroundings – from a white bandana and yellow coins to a red blanket and even their baby sister – into a colorful pirate adventure before naptime. 

What Color Is Night? by Grant Snider 
Against the backdrop of the dark blue night, the text explores the colors of things, both natural and manmade, that one can see in the night, before falling asleep to dream. 

A Gift for Amma: Market Day in India by Meera Sriram 
A young girl explores the vibrant rainbow of items for sale in a southern Indian street market as she searches for a gift for her mother. Includes facts about the items mentioned and markets around the world, as well as photographs taken by the author in her hometown of Chennai, India. 

Blue vs. Yellow by Tom Sullivan 
Yellow and blue characters argue which color is better, ultimately agreeing that they can be great together as green, until red arrives on the scene to spoil everything. 

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri  
When Farmer Gray goes away for the day, Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick, and White Duck get together and paint their black and white farm. 

They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki 
A young girl describes where she finds colors in both the world around her and beyond what she can see. 

Green is a Chile Pepper: A Book of Colors by Roseanne Thong 
Children discover a world of colors all around them. Many of the featured objects are Latino in origin, but are universal in appeal. A short glossary explains the cultural significance of the colored objects featured in this book. 

Red is a Dragon:  A Book of Colors by Roseanne Thong 
A Chinese American girl provides rhyming descriptions of the great variety of colors she sees around her, from the red of a dragon, firecrackers, and lychees to the brown of her teddy bear. 

Mix It Up! by Hervé Tullet 
Using no special effects other than the reader’s imagination, simple directions lead the reader to experiment with mixing and changing colors on the printed page. 

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh 
Three white mice discover jars of red, blue, and yellow paint and explore the world of color. 

Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson 
While taking a walk with Mouse, Bear meets many other friends and sees colors everywhere. 

Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff 
Leaving the den as the weather warms, Baby Bear discovers blue birds, red strawberries, orange butterflies, and other colorful things in nature. 

The Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors by Audrey Wood 
Introduces various colors by presenting a colorful scene on a rock in the deep blue sea. 

Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young 
Retells in verse the Indian fable of the blind men discovering parts of an elephant and arguing about its appearance.  The illustrations depict the blind arguers as mice.