Picture+Books-+The+Color+of+Us

//The Colors of Us// by Karen Katz

[|www.aloofcanada.net/Books-c-416.html]

Lena, the main character, is a young girl who is trying to paint a portrait but can't mix the right brown for her skin. Her mother helps her but Lena doubtfully reacts "Brown is brown." Lena's artist mother takes her on a walk where they see all of thier friends around town. Lena learns to mix the different browns of thier skin colors and associate the colors to yummy food words throughout such as "coffee," "pumpkin roll," etc. This teaches Lena that everyone is unique, including her. At the end, she paints a new portrait of everyone she saw in celebration of what she learned.

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