In Living Color

Isn’t it funny how much we associate some people in our lives with certain colors? Keilana was born at Easter time and whenever I see groupings of pastels, I think of my Bunny Baby. My mom loves all shades of blue, especially cobalt, so dusk and those fancy glass bottles of water remind me of her. And now anything red brings my Scarlett to mind. I can’t see any of these colors without thinking of the people entwined with them in my memory. Of course, people also gravitate to colors that speak to them for some reason. I love all things pink--cotton candy, ballerina tutus, bubblegum ice cream--and would wear it every day if I didn’t think my academic credibility would suffer. Keilana formed an early and intense bond with the color purple, once even dyeing her hair a vivid lavender that suited her perfectly and made her look like some exotic alien babe from Star Trek. One of my colleagues is really, really into frogs and this naturally makes green her default color of choice. Some people decorate their baby nurseries or reception halls to match the colors of their favorite school or sports team. And what about those crazy people who paint themselves for football games and then dance around half-naked in the freezing cold?! Color not only brightens and enlivens our world, it becomes part of our identity as well. In Keith Kimberlin’s Colors, rainbow kittens share their multi-hued treasures. What color has your name on it?

http://www.amazon.com/Colors-Paw-Prints-Early-Learning/dp/1419401130

http://www.keithkimberlin.com/

Te Quiero

I don’t know if I am a speech teacher because I love language and want to be immersed in it all the time, or if I love language because I am a speech teacher trained to recognize its infinite glories. Either way, words fascinate me, even those in languages I do not speak. Passing on this passion is such a drive within me that I began amassing a library of children’s books while I was still in high school. Consequently, my kids have more books than any ten children could ever use and I still keep adding to the inventory. So, two years ago when I was still reeling over finding out at forty, with my youngest a fourth grader, that I was getting back in the baby game, it made perfect sense to pick up Rebecca Emberley’s little board book Mis Colores, with very basic color and object translations, at a yard sale down the street. Having been born and raised in Southern California, where you pick up a good chunk of Spanish as a matter of course, I already knew many of the words and their pronunciation but it was interesting to read them aloud to Scarlett and realize that the only impediment these new little ones have to knowing literally every word in the human lexicon is our short-sighted inability to teach them. Languages are only hard for adults because, really, if you’re not even two yet, your heart understands that “orange” and “anaranjado”--and people--are the same.

http://www.jacketflap.com/persondetail.asp?person=129210

http://www.amazon.com/Colors-Mis-Colores-English-Spanish/dp/0316233471