My Favorite Color By Aaron Becker

 Becker, A. (2020). My favorite color. Candlewick Studio, an imprint of Candlewick Press. 

    The beauty of My Favorite Color, by Aaron Becker, is in its simplicity. The narrator of the book appears to be trying to narrow down the colors to discover their favorite color, and goes back and forth between all the shades of the rainbow, before being told they can only have one favorite color, and finally disregarding that claim completely to declare that it is “impossible” to choose just one color to be their favorite color. While an incredibly basic, perhaps too basic, plot, it is nevertheless intriguing for youngsters to examine the pages of colorful swatches.

The story, while one of the most basic I have ever seen, is very appealing to its target audience. The book is filled with pages of varying hues of each color and the opaque, plastic hues that appear in the book that can be popped inward and outward by a curious youngster’s hand. These squares of opaque color are also intriguing when held up to the light, as they appear to be different colors when they are without a page of yellow squares as a background, as opposed to when they stand on their own. 

    This book is sure to delight a baby or toddler’s curiosity and interest with it’s simply designed, multicolored pages. Though the words in this book are minimal, parents can make this brief book last longer by helping a child to compare the various shades of the colors to objects in their surroundings. Maybe that shade of yellow in the upper right hand corner is the same shade as their stuffed duckling toy, or that red is the same color as a passing car, or this shade of pink is the same color as the walls in their bedroom. Maybe this is Mom’s favorite color. Which color is the young reader's favorite? The last page features square holes where the rest of the book may have had colorful, opaque squares. It’s easy to imagine that this page would be appealing to young readers as well, as they may like to stick their fingers through these holes. There are so many ways to engage with this book beyond the simplistic story that it tells.