Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue? by Tana Hoban

Hoban, T. (1978). Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue? New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue? is a concept book meant to teach or reinforce color recognition. This book is best suited for very young preschool aged children. The author uses actual photographs of everyday objects to reinforce colors. Displayed at the bottom of each page is a circle or circles of the prominent color(s) on the page. There is no cohesive story to speak of since this is book is completely wordless and only consists of unrelated photographs. It would best be used in preschool rooms as a read aloud. The teacher could ask students to identify the color(s) on each page. Then the teacher could ask students to point out various objects in the photo. This task would help with observation skills as well as vocabulary since it would require students to verbalize their response. Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue? was not my favorite concept book simply because it was a bit outdated and a little too simplistic. I would have preferred to see the names of the colors on the page so that students could start to link the name (in text) with the spoken word. Overall, though, it was a good example of a concept book because it focused solely on the concept of color.

(Image from www.harpercollins.com)