All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka

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This book made to celebrate the colors of children and the colors of love and not black or white or yellow or red, but roaring brown, whispering gold, tinkling pink, and more. [1]   

Summary

Sheila Hamanaka has managed to turn difference of color into pure poetry. In “All of the Colors of the Earth,” she begins: “Children come in all the colors of the earth” and describes what she means both in gorgeous illustrations and soaring poetry.

The illustrations is softly-colored pictures, it shows the similarities between the diversity of color on the planet, and those who inhabit it. For example, one girl is described as having a complexion like the “crackling russets of fallen leaves.” Two little boys playing on the beach have skin the color of “the tinkling pinks of tiny seashells by the rumbling sea.” All kids, she avers, no matter what color, are united by love, for “love is amber and ivory and ginger and sweet.” “Children come in all the colors of love, In endless shades of you and me.” [2]

Pros

The author uses the choicest language (and the sweetest illustrations) to describe the children of the world, and in doing so, she affirms the beauty of each child as an image-bearer of God. It was a beautiful affirmation of God’s work in making each one of us different, rather than lumping us into groups without subtlety, she treats skin color as a spectrum with gradients and variation. [3]

References