If Kisses Were Colors - Hardcover

Janet Lawler's first picture book, IF KISSES WERE COLORS (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2003), received numerous favorable reviews, was chosen as a Main Selection by the Children's Book of the Month Club, and is in its tenth print run. It has been published in the U.K., and translated into Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Her other work includes LOVE IS REAL (HarperCollins, 2014), OCEAN COUNTING, and RAIN FOREST COLORS (National Geographic, 2013 and 2014). Janet has also been published by Humpty Dumpty's Magazine, Shoofly audio magazine, educational publisher Evan-Moor, and Highlights Magazine. Family and nature are two of Janet's favorite themes.

PreSchool-A slightly offbeat approach to the familiar topic of parental love. Lawler's verses are simple but the images evoked are sometimes unexpected. Kisses are characterized as colors, pebbles, comets, flowers, raindrops, acorns, snowflakes, and blankets. In each case, abundance is the norm. "If kisses were colors, you'd see every one/of the bands of a rainbow that shines in the sun./If kisses were pebbles, your beach would be lined/with stones by the millions, of all shapes and kinds." Jay's distinctive artwork, "created using alkyd oil paint on paper with crackling varnish," amplifies the verses. Unusual portraits show a pensive pebble, a smiling flower, a welcoming acorn. In other illustrations, anthropomorphic animal children dance together under a rainbow, collect pebbles on a beach, etc. A human mother and child appear on the first page and the last. For adults drawn to Jay's imaginative artwork and/or Lawler's sweetly expressed affection, this book provides an interesting alternative to books like Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995). It's unclear, however, whether its quiet whimsy will have broad child appeal.
Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.