A Color of His Own

I find there are some books that, upon re-reading them, take you back to a very specific time and place. "A Color of His Own" does that for me.

Whenever I read it, I think of a little boy I used to tutor. He was autistic, but he could read quite well - technically. He had (seemingly) very little comprehension, but lots of decoding abilites. He was extremely artistic, and loved drawing. In order to keep him engaged, I picked out a lot of books that were visually appealingand had a simple, clear plotline. When I bought an old school reader at Value Village, I found "A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni inside. It became a fast favorite.

The little guy and I read this story umpteen times. He never seemed to tired of it. And with good reason! Like Lionni's other books, this one is done in watercolor. The pictures are very simple and bright, and the story is sweet.

What IS the story about? Thought you'd never ask!

Basically, a chameleon grows tired of always changing color (wherever he happens to sit, he changes to look like the background). He decides to sit on a leaf forever and never change color again. Problem! Leaves change color in the fall(d'oh!). When this happens, the chameleon gets kind of depressed and remains black all through winter. Then, in the spring, he finds an older, wiser chameleon. This chameleon explains that if they stick together, they'll always have a color of their own - even though they'll still change color, they'll do it together. Aw.

It's a really sweet book!

It also has the (possibly overused, but totally appropriate) "happily ever after" ending - and I'm a sucker for that.

So, for happy memories, beautiful art and a gentle story, I give this book 9 chameleons out of ten.