Grey by Laura Dockrill and Lauren Child

Emotions are equated with colours in this timely book, beautifully written and illustrated by Duckbrill and Child.

The text relates the child’s feelings on waking. Today is a grey day, not sunshines yellow or treetop green, not nighttime black or new idea white, but grey. The text then tells us what the child feels like, again, likening the emotions to things around her. The greyness is the scribbles on the page, the overhead storm in the clouds, the puddle in the road.

We are told again ‘I am grey today. I just am. I am grey.'

The child sits alone on the play equipment, bemoaning the fact of being lonely, but this is what the child feels when grey.

Mum tells her child that it is OK to feel grey, but this is not the whole story. Just because the colours have all gone today, they are still there and may reappear tomorrow. Tomorrow those stormy clouds may make it rain and so tomorrow when the yellow sun shines there are puddles tp play in. Today the child may be grey like the pavements but tomorrow when chalk is given, drawing on those pavements will overcome the grey.

A reassuring big red hug shows the child that love surmounts the greyness every time.

A wonderful series of images are created by the text, ensuring readers will think about the image developed in their minds, and think about the way they could describe the colours the child is feeling, or equate the colours to times when they too feel grey.

The illustrations powerfully reinforce the text, adding a new dimension with cut outs and an emphasis on colour. The colours from the text, sunshine yellow, treetop green, lullaby blue, are splashed across each page, making a statement about how the child is feeling, and making sure the readers will articulate how they feel.

The bold illustrations stand out on each page, the playground equipment, once grey now shown with colours, the bedroom with its comforting blues, Mum’s red jacket, surrounding the child with love. Colours are used as a way of showing how the child feels, grey to icing sugar pink, to a big red hig.

A wonderful contribution to the growing number of books which support children’s feeling of wellbeing, the story is apt for every child, and more particularly those who feel out of sorts. The book reinforces the value of a hug, while telling the reader that many feel grey sometimes but the grey is alway overcome by the colours and it is the colours in a child’s life that should be pursued.

Themes: Wellness, Mental health, Sadness, Depression.

Fran Knight