Mixed: A Colorful Story

Great book. It was fun and easy to understand. I bought this as a gift for my 1-1/2 year old grandson. I starts with 3 distinct colored dot people. Everyone gets along until Red told everyone that red was the best color. The 3 colors separated and made towns for just their color. Eventually blue and yellow mixed to create green. Everyone was in awe of how cute green was. Soon they all realized they would be happier being friends. It's really cute. Diversity is the theme but there is also a theme of how colors mix and the resulting colors. (I like art so that impressed me.)

Not only does this book have a beautiful message, it’s a great way to help introduce secondary and tertiary colors to kids. I read this book before a color mixing art lesson with a first grade class. Definitely a great one to add to your collection if you’re an art docent or teacher in and elementary school.

This is such a great book for my 2 year old! Not only do we get to practice naming our colors, but we also get to start learning the idea that all colors are beautiful!

Before this book came out, I took a free online seminar on how to write a picture book put on by the author, Arree Chang. At the very end of the live stream, he read his new book that was not on shelves yet, "Mixed." Instantly, I was captivated the book and its bright colors, fun story line, and deep meaning. Three months later, when it was finally out for the public, I bought it. It was even better on paper! The story starts off with three core colors: red, yellow, and blue. In the beginning, all the colors live in perfect harmony until one day when one color thought they were the best. The colors all segregated and fought over who was best color. But one day, a blue and a yellow met and soon became friends. Later the two decided to get marry and "mix." The two have a daughter and her name is Green. She was unlike any color anyone in town had even soon. Shortly after Green arrived, other colors began to mix and more colors were a result of it. The colors were no longer separated and lived together in harmony once again. Chang's use of symbolism is excellent in this text. I brought this book to a 3rd grade teacher I work with and she loved it. She plans on borrowing it during their color unit. I think this book would great in elementary school and possibly even middle school. It could be used to teach about colors like my co-worker is going to do or it could be used to teach symbolism and the relationship the story has to history. I highly suggest checking out this book.

People can be quick to judge others and children are no different. It can be especially difficult to be welcoming to someone who is quite different from you. As such I am always looking for books that can help me teach the importance of kindness and being welcoming. This book fits that need perfectly. Not only is it a fun way to introduce children to primary colors and how they mix, but the story also shows the dangers of pride: considering ourselves better than others who are different. The story revolves around the Reds, Blues, and Yellows, who are getting along just fine as the story opens. Things change though when a Red loudly declares (and others agree) that Reds are better than the Blues and Yellows. Naturally, the Blues and Yellows don't take this very well and before long the three groups have separated themselves. Things don't change until a Yellow reaches out to a sad-looking Blue and the two become friends before marrying and having a green child. At first, others are shocked at Blue and Yellow associating with each other, but their fascination with Green slowly leads them to open up to associating with each other again. While real life isn't that simple, the idea of reaching out to others who are different and appreciating each other's strengths instead of rejecting them because they are supposedly inferior, is a powerful idea. The illustrations happen to be adorable.

My five year old is obsessed with this book. We read it every night. The writing in the book is simple and clear. My child can easily follow along and pictures are very cute. I love that this book can be interpreted as how our kids should see racial and ethnic diversity.

My baby boy loves this book. Hes loved it since he was a baby. We have 75-100 books on his shelf and he picks this one out every time since he was 12 months old. He’s 17 months now and we wore out the first copy which was a gift at our baby shower so I had to buy him a new one. I think he loves the colors a lot, the first three pages make him smile and he points to the colors and says “ball.” The story is cute, but he loves the pictures. It’s his favorite book.

My kids love this story and I love the message it presents. It was a hit reading it to my child’s class for mystery reader day at school too! We have purchased this book multiple times for gifts as well.