Bookology Magazine

The Wonderful World of Color

When you think of a rain­bow, you see it in col­or. It wouldn’t be the same in black and white. The same holds true for a box of crayons. When you think of a pic­ture book, you prob­a­bly visu­al­ize pages of col­or­ful illus­tra­tions. The world is in col­or, and col­or brings pic­ture books to life. While illus­tra­tors use black and white to cre­ate award-win­ning pic­ture books as we saw in a pre­vi­ous col­umn, this arti­cle will exam­ine how illus­tra­tors effec­tive­ly use col­or for mul­ti­ple purposes.

In her book Pic­ture This: How Pic­tures Work, Mol­ly Bang tells us, “Color’s effect on us is very strong — stronger than that of oth­er pic­ture ele­ments” (Bang, 2016, p. 95). There is a whole sci­ence or psy­chol­o­gy of col­or because col­or con­veys mean­ing. Illus­tra­tors use col­or strate­gi­cal­ly to empha­size, to affect emo­tions, and to estab­lish set­ting, tone, and mood.

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson and Beth Krommes Min­i­mal use of col­or can be very pow­er­ful. In The House in the Night (Calde­cott Medal, 2009), writ­ten by Susan Marie Swan­son, Beth Krommes high­lights her black-and-white scratch­board and water­col­or illus­tra­tions with a gold­en orange color.

This warm glow through­out the book is com­fort­ing and reas­sur­ing amidst the dark­ness of the night.

illustration from The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson and Beth Krommes
illus­tra­tion © Beth Krommes from The House in the Night, writ­ten by Susan Marie Swan­son, pub­lished by Clar­i­on Books

Olivia by Ian FalconerCol­or has mean­ing, and can mean dif­fer­ent things depend­ing on how it is used. Ian Fal­con­er dress­es his irre­press­ible piglet in red in every illus­tra­tion in Olivia (Calde­cott Hon­or, 2001). She is brave and bold. Red is often asso­ci­at­ed with love or pow­er (Cher­ry, 2025), but it can also sym­bol­ize ener­gy, and ener­gy defines Olivia as she tries on every arti­cle of cloth­ing she owns in the morn­ing. The mul­ti­ple vignettes indi­cate action in rapid suc­ces­sion, and the col­or red focus­es all the atten­tion on Olivia.

illustration from Olivia by Ian Falconer
illus­tra­tion © Ian Fal­con­er from Olivia, pub­lished Atheneum

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and David SmallDavid Small also uses col­or sym­bol­i­cal­ly in Tony Buzzeo’s One Cool Friend (Calde­cott Hon­or, 2013). Blue is a cool col­or, and it evokes the idea of water and cold, very appro­pri­ate for a sto­ry about a pen­guin. As Elliot walks into the aquar­i­um, the blue tiles and curved tun­nel remind you of an igloo. Did you notice that Elliot’s shad­ow is a penquin?

illustration from One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and David Small
illus­tra­tion © David Small from One Cool Friend, writ­ten by Toni Buzzeo, Dial Books

Some artists use col­or min­i­mal­ly, and oth­ers use it extrav­a­gant­ly. The vibrant, sat­u­rat­ed col­ors in the illus­tra­tions of Yuyi Morales’ Viva Fri­da (Calde­cott Hon­or, 2015), and C. G. Esperanza’s My Dad­dy Is a Cow­boy (Calde­cott Hon­or, 2025) exude excite­ment, high spir­its, and joy.

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales
illustration from Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales
illus­tra­tion © Yuyi Morales from Viva Fri­da, pub­lished by Roar­ing Brook Press
illustration from My Daddy is a Cowboy by Stephanie Searles and C.G. Esperanza
illus­tra­tion © C.G. Esper­an­za from My Dad­dy is a Cow­boy, writ­ten by Stephanie Sear­les, pub­lished by Har­ry N. Abrams

Waiting by Kevin HenkesWhen you con­trast these images with Kevin Henkes’ soft and con­sis­tent pas­tel palette in Wait­ing (Calde­cott Hon­or, 2016), it’s easy to see how col­or affects emo­tion and mood.

The qui­et calm­ness of the wait­ing toys in Henkes’ pic­ture book makes it a per­fect choice for a sooth­ing bed­time story.

illustration from Waiting by Kevin Henkes
illus­tra­tion © Kevin Henkes from Wait­ing, pub­lished by Green­wil­low Books

A Ball for Daisy by Chris RaschkaChris Rasch­ka mas­ter­ful­ly cap­tures a dog’s emo­tions after her ball deflates in A Ball for Daisy (Calde­cott Medal, 2012). Not only does Rasch­ka illus­trate Daisy’s bewil­der­ment, anger, and sor­row in the dog’s expres­sions, but he also empha­sizes her grief jour­ney from dis­be­lief to depres­sion through the back­ground col­ors grad­u­al­ly shift­ing from yel­low to pur­ple to brown. In this two-page spread, he demon­strates a quote from Picas­so: “Col­ors, like fea­tures, fol­low the changes of the emo­tions” (Cher­ry, 2025).

illustration from A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka
illus­tra­tion © Chris Rasch­ka from A Ball for Daisy, pub­lished by Green­wil­low Books

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan SantatDan San­tat cre­ates mood and also defines set­ting through col­or in The Adven­tures of Beek­le: The Unimag­i­nary Friend (Calde­cott Medal, 2015). In the first illus­tra­tion, we find Beek­le in the child­hood world of imag­i­na­tion, a kalei­do­scope of col­or. The bright yel­low, a col­or asso­ci­at­ed with hap­pi­ness, dom­i­nates. How­ev­er, when Beek­le enters the adult world, the somber dark col­ors indi­cate the seri­ous­ness of the grown-ups. San­tat dis­tin­guish­es between the two worlds again in the third illus­tra­tion. Beek­le runs from gray to col­or enter­ing the exu­ber­ance of children’s imag­i­na­tions on the playground.

illustration from The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
illus­tra­tion © Dan San­tat from The Adven­tures of Beek­le: The Unimag­i­nary Friend, pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown Books
illustration from The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
illus­tra­tion © Dan San­tat from The Adven­tures of Beek­le: The Unimag­i­nary Friend, pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown Books
illustration from The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
illus­tra­tion © Dan San­tat from The Adven­tures of Beek­le: The Unimag­i­nary Friend, pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown Books

Just as the sound­tracks of movies play in the back­ground, and we don’t always notice how the music affects us, so col­or in pic­ture books affects the read­ers and adds mean­ing to the text, some­times with­out our aware­ness. “In children’s books, colour isn’t just about aes­thet­ics — it’s an essen­tial tool for sto­ry­telling and emo­tion­al engage­ment” (Big Red Illus­tra­tion, 2024). Artists’ thought­ful and delib­er­ate use of col­or in illus­tra­tions is wor­thy of atten­tion and adds to our appre­ci­a­tion of pic­ture books.

Picture Books Cited

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten’s first full moon. Green­wil­low Books.

Howett, M. & DiTer­l­izzi, T. (2002). The spi­der and the fly. Simon & Schus­ter Books for Young Readers.

Buzzeo, T. & Small, D. (2012). One cool friend. Dial Books.

Fal­con­er, I. (2000). Olivia. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Henkes, K. (2015). Wait­ing. Green­wil­low Books.

Morales, Y. & O’Meara, T. (2014). Viva Fri­da. Roar­ing Brook Press.

Rasch­ka, C. (2011). A ball for Daisy. Ran­dom House Studio.

Seales, S. & Esper­an­za, C.G. (2024). My dad­dy is a cow­boy. Har­ry N. Abrams.

San­tat, D. (2014). The adven­tures of Beek­le: The unimag­i­nary friend. Lit­tle, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Swan­son, S. M. & Krommes, B. (2008). The house in the night. Clar­i­on Books.

References

Bang, M. (2016). Pic­ture this: How pic­tures work (revised and expand­ed 25th anniver­sary edi­tion). Chron­i­cle Books.

Big Red Illus­tra­tion. (n.d.). The role of colour in children’s book illus­tra­tion. 

Cher­ry, K. ( 2025, Novem­ber 19). How col­or psy­chol­o­gy affects mood, feel­ings, and behav­ior. Very­well Mind. 

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4 Comments
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Emilie Buchwald
Emilie Buchwald
4 months ago

What a mar­velous arti­cle with so many inspir­it­ing books as exam­ples. Thank you, Hei­di and Gail.

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Heidi Hammond
Heidi Hammond
Reply to  Emilie Buchwald
3 months ago

Thank you!

Reply
Joyce Sidman
Joyce Sidman
4 months ago

Won­der­ful arti­cle! Thank you. That deep con­nec­tion to col­or per­sists; I just helped 5th graders write col­or poems with and they adored it!

Reply
Heidi Hammond
Heidi Hammond
Reply to  Joyce Sidman
3 months ago

That’s great! Thank you!

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