Illustrations with raised lines and descriptions of color based on imagery provide readers with an interactive experience to the concept of blindness, and includes a full Braille alphabet. - (Baker & Taylor)
In a story where the text appears in white letters on a black background, as well as in braille, and the illustrations are also raised on a black surface, Thomas describes how he recognizes different colors using various senses. - (Baker & Taylor)
A New York Times Book Review choice as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008
It is very hard for a sighted person to imagine what it is like to be blind. This groundbreaking, award-winning book endeavors to convey the experience of a person who can only see through his or her sense of touch, taste, smell or hearing.
Raised black line drawings on black paper, which can be deciphered by touch, complement a beautifully written text describing colors through imagery. Braille letters accompany the text so that the sighted reader can begin to imagine what it is like to use Braille to read. A full Braille alphabet at the end of the book can be used to learn more.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
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Perseus Publishing)
This groundbreaking, award-winning book conveys the experience of a person who can only see through his or her sense of touch, taste, smell or hearing. - (Perseus Publishing)
Living with the use of one's eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this innovative title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This extraordinary title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.
- (
Perseus Publishing)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* How do you describe the colors of the rainbow to someone who cannot see them? This inventive picture book relates the ways Thomas experiences colors—through his senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. To Thomas, red is the sting of a skinned knee or the tartness of an unripe strawberry; green, the scent of freshly mown grass. What is most remarkable about this book's captivating concept, however, is its execution. Black raised line art is set against black pages that echo Thomas' spirited imagery and invite readers to explore what it's like to read with their fingertips. The descriptive, sensory text, which also incorporates white type and Braille, combined with an innovative design, makes this book the perfect starting point for discussions on difference, perspective, and experiencing and describing the world in new ways, topics that are relevant to readers of all ages. Winner of the New Horizons Prize at the 2007 Bologna Children's Book Fair and originally published in Spanish, the book concludes with a Braille alphabet. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.
