Catalan / Spain
Rastellera de colors
(Colour range)
Molist, Pep
(text)
Varela, Alicia
(illus.)
Barcelona: Babulinka Books, 2021. – [140] p.
(Series: Minimini. Mini Joies per a Primers Lectors)
ISBN 978-84-1208085-8
(Spanish parallel ed.: Hilera de colores. Babulinka Books, 2021)
Colour | Poetry
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2022
Even though the cover of this book is rather unassuming, the decorative row of colour pencils lends it an appealing first impression. Pep Molist has written 44 poems, each one dedicated to a different colour tone, and arranged them similarly to a colour wheel: from white, to ivory and cream, through to lilac and dark purple. In between we discover both melodious and strange sounding names such as cornflower blue, mustard, bottle green or the common Catalan term »merda de ganso« (goose shit). The light-footed, associative poems often try, with only a few words and verses, to capture nature and the effects of individual colours as if in a snapshot: a blue bruise on the hand, the beige wool of a sheep grazing among poppies, a silvery beam of sunlight on water. Other poems explain the origins of names, such as fuchsia red or magenta. The colour pencil drawings by Alicia Varela are perfectly suited to these texts. Their delicate lines are suggestive and leave the reader enough space for their own thoughts and images. [JW]