“Ce culoare este aceasta?” (“What colour is this?”, in English) was the first book that helped us explore colours with little gosling, a bit before he showed any interest in them. It was also the first “lift the flap” book that he came across and he was hooked for days by some of the activities. He was less interested in the colours part at the time. He instantly liked the smaller flaps, mainly on the green (discover the flowers one can find on the meadows) and red (guess the colours of fruits) pages. He also loved flipping the flap with a white wall being painted in yellow. 

On the red pages, he was drawn to the kid with a bleeding knee with a first aid kit with a red cross on it next to him. We spent minutes at a time on this image. I credit this book with seeding the seeds for his understanding of the traffic lights; we built on that by explaining and repeating each time we crossed the street the correct behaviour and he now stops at the red light and pulls my hand to cross when it’s green. We call them the little red man and the little green man. He knows the little red man says “stop” and the little green man says “go, cross”. As weeks went by, he became interested in other bits of the book. It helped him understand the distinction between dark (=sleep) and daylight (=wake up). He started grasping the associations made between colours and animals or food items (e.g. yellow like the lemon). 

It is a book well adapted to a wider age range, one which the younger ones can grow up reading. There are more things to explore and understand, as his ability to grasp more complex notions develops. I found it an attractive way to approach colours, a practical help to teach the presence and use of colours around us and a valuable tool to develop his (associated) vocabulary.