''The Color Kittens'' is a children's book by

Margaret Wise Brown Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American people, American writer of children's books, including ''Goodnight Moon'' and ''The Runaway Bunny'', both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of ...

, illustrated by

Alice and Martin Provensen Alice Rose Provensen (''née'' Twitchell; August 14, 1918 – April 23, 2018) and Martin Provensen (July 10, 1916 – March 27, 1987) were an American couple who illustrated more than 40 children's books together, 19 of which they also wrote and edi ...

, and published, as part of the

Little Golden Books Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942. '' The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have ...

series, in 1949.

Plot

The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts lead to a variety of different hues—none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!"

Publication history

*''The Color Kittens'', 1949, USA,

Simon and Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

*''The Colour Kittens'', 1973, Australia, Golden Press *''The Color Kittens'', (Kathi Ember, illustrator) 1994, USA,

Western Publishing Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was a Racine, Wisconsin, firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and ...

*''The Color Kittens'', 2003, USA,

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

Reception

Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that, "In a way, the book was written to teach facts about color, but its real subject is the huge pleasure to be found in the seeing and feeling of color ... Suzanne Rahn notes that Hush and Brush's active creativity and exploration have some parallels among Brown's other cat characters, such as the drastically less-humanized Pussycat, who are much more passive in their representation of the creative state Brown called “Cat Life”.

References

External links

* http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htmy/0307102343.html 1949 children's books Children's fiction books American picture books Little Golden Books Books by Margaret Wise Brown Books about cats {{child-picture-book-stub