Nana's colours by Pamela Allen

Penguin/Viking, 2011. ISBN 9780670075379.
(Age 2-5) Recommended. It is Nana's birthday and the children all have a colour to give her to celebrate. Each present is a different colour.
In a deceptively simple picture book that on the surface could be regarded as a teaching tool for colours, Allen has brought alive the joy that giving a present brings to not only the person who receives it but to the person who gives it. The love that both the children and Nana have for each other is also evident and this book will deepen the young reader's understanding of love and family.
With very few words and wonderful illustrations, Pamela Allen has produced a beautiful picture book that will also teach children about the different colours. On a two-page spread, Allen has draw six children holding six bouquets of flowers all in different colours. The children's faces and bodies are hidden by the flowers and their stems making the children look a bouquet of flowers in themselves, one that grandmothers will relate to I'm sure. The following pages have a single word for the colour and then a picture of the little child, who is carrying the bouquet to Nana. It finishes off with an exuberant grandmother and her grandchildren dancing through a sea of different coloured flowers.
A beautiful picture book that will be winging its way over to London to my grandchildren, Nana's colours is sure to bring delight to any grandmother's heart.
Pat Pledger