When people talk about children’s books, you’d instantly think about white or black characters, illustrations, cartoonish images, and all things kids. But not this kid’s book called ‘Blue’ that talks about the history of blue — without the characters.
The History of ‘Blue’
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond was wondering about the origins of the blue color. How was this color produced? What are the hues around it? And what are the methods to produce it? After listening to a podcast called Why Isn’t the Sky Blue?, Brew-Hammond thought about the ancient origins of the color blue.
She also came across the book Pink Is Not a Color by Lindsay Ward, and she thought the book didn’t dive deeper into the origin of the color. However, it revels in the myths and expectations surrounding the color pink.
Brew-Hammond considers the color blue as something that’s a part of human history. A color that represents suffering, happiness, and resilience. And when Brew-Hammond saw Daniel Minter’s work, that’s when she knew the tandem could produce a fantastic children’s book.
In the book, she talks about why blue is all around us. It’s in the skies and the seas, but we can’t touch it. She delved into how Egyptians were wearing the lapis lazuli or some dyers in the past crushing snails to get the Tyrian purple color.
She then ended the book with a thought-provoking quote that says, “Maybe because blue has such a complicated history of pain, wealth, invention, and recovery, it’s become a symbol of possibility, as vast and deep as the bluest sea, and as wide open and high as the bluest sky.”
David Folkenflik, NPR’s media correspondent, interviews Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond.
Interview with Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond – Snippets
Brew-Hammond: I thought about the significance of the color blue when I was reading the Bible one day. I paused when I read about King Salomon’s temple furnishings with the blue drapes.
I started doing some research and knew that snails produced the color blue that people used to dye in the past. I was amazed at how expensive it was since snails only produced a drop or two. And that’s when I thought that kids should definitely know about this.
Interview with Illustrator Daniel Minter
Folkenflik: We also spoke with Blue’s illustrator Daniel Minter.
Minter: You can see a lot of the color blue in most of my previous work. It’s my go-to color. I use tones and hues of blue for the characters’ skin. This shows the human skin’s depth of color that also radiates to black and bits of red and green. Overall, blue is a complex color.
When I got this project, I thought the book was fascinating due to the lack of characters. I also didn’t want to get into details about the book with the author because I wanted to interpret the book myself by just reading the text.
So I started with the hands. The hands reaching up to the highest skies and hands cupping the water from the seas or hands making the medicine from indigo plants. If you notice, the book is all about the human interaction with the color blue and the methods and materials that produce this color.
Brew-Hammond: It wasn’t really a conscious decision to eliminate characters from the book. It was more about what children can take away from this book. I read about history and understood that people wonder how to capture the sky or the sea. But then it all shifted to power, wealth, royalty, elitism, brutality, suffering, and pain. So for me, blue is anchored in historical realities and more about human feelings.
And for other stories, read more here at Owner’s Mag!
