pantone colors {what we're reading}

No child's library is complete without a colour book

and this one is an absolute gem.

I'm a big fan of really attractive, grown up style books

and my beautiful boy definitely seems to feel the same.

And this one is like a gorgeous coffee table book.

Each page features a different colour

just as you might expect from a children's colour book.

But Pantone Colours also features a page with different shades of that colour

including their pantone number

which I think is a really nice touch.

It looks a little like a paint chart,

and I love paint charts.

Is that just me...?

Each of the colours has a really great descriptive name

which I think really encourages some interesting descriptive language

(that's the teacher in me, you can never quite turn that off!)

After we have read each colour 

we always choose a shade that we like the best

and try to remember what it was called.

We use this book as a launch pad for a lot of other learning type activities actually.

We sometimes use it as a reference book

and will compare toys to the pages and see which shade of a certain colour they are.

We practise counting.

We talk about the concepts of light and dark.

We point to the big bold colour words as we read them.

Initially I bought this book more for me than anyone,

but the truth is,

that despite it being a really basic book,

with no story or fancy rhymes

it gets picked off of the book shelf more than most of the others.

I think it's simple, bright, graphic images

really appeal to children.

And their parents too!