We recently added a little boy to our family who loves to look through books of colorful creatures. The following two picture books have not failed to delight when it comes to exploring the world of color surrounding us.

I Dream of an Elephant (published by Abbeville Kids) is a cute book filled with elephants of the green, blue, read and yellow variety. Told in rhyme, the story is told in simple sentences to hold the attention of the young reader. Each page spread features an elephant of a different variety and the children have to guess the color of the elephant outloud. For example – on the page spread that depicts a blue elephant you’ll find the following text:

“Jumping and playing the whole morning through!
I dream of an elephant whose color is . . . ?”

This is a great way to share a simple story with your little one while teaching your child the colors. I Dream of an Elephant is super cute and my son really enjoyed the illustrations by Ami Rubinger. Check this one out!

In A Most Vivid Day! (published by Golden Tree Press, an imprint of Dream Character, Inc.) we meet Tommy the bat who only knows of a world filled with black. This is, of course, because he is only awake at night and sees the work through “dark colored glasses.” On one particular day, Tommy decides to stay awake and sees what the world looks like when the sun is up. He is positively amazed by all of the beautiful colors he sees and he wants to help the sun paint the world with a variety of them! This is a rather heart warming book if you think of the poor little depraved bat who has never know the glories of sunlight. Themes in this book include: learning to share, teamwork and community.

An interesting side note about A Most Vivid Day! is that it was illustrated by Justin Young who was born in Seoul, South Korea. He moved to New York to study toy design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and has been engaged in the world of art ever since. A Most Vivid Day! is Young’s first children’s picture book and I think he did a mighty fine job. I look forward to seeing more of what he will produce in the future.

Now, a note of interest to you all – I have one copy of each of the above titles to giveaway to one of you, thanks to Abbeville Kids and Golden Tree Press. To win? Simply leave a comment below. This contest is open to U.S. Residents only. We’ll announce the winner on May 24.

The winners of Who Loves the Little Lamb are #1 Hailey, #12 Tori Close, #42 Tiffany O., #36 Karyn Hostetter, #9 CBH.

The Threadbare Heart giveaway is still open here at 5 Minutes for Mom and we have SIX book giveaways open right now at 5 Minutes for Books.

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library. Carrie thanks the publisher for the review copies.