15+ Picture Books About Colors

It’s such a fun milestone when a child starts to be able to identify colors. All of my girls have gone through stages where they are absolutely OBSESSED with books about colors and love identifying the colors of different items in a book.

There are so many great books about colors and I’ve rounded up some of my favorites here. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we have!

15+ Picture Books About Colors

Cat’s Colors by Airlie Anderson. This is a very simple book about colors, with a white cat going for a walk against a gray background. She comes across colors as she goes and each time she spots a new one, a splash of that color appears on her fur. And then, on the last page, there’s a delightful surprise (spoiler: colorful kittens!).

 

Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell. As we’ve been reading books about colors as I was researching for this post, this was DEFINITELY the favorite in our house (Tally requested it daily for weeks). It’s about three little children visiting their grandfather who has a big garden and, on a rainy day, they head out to the garden to pick a rainbow of vegetables to make into Grandpa’s famous Rainbow Stew.

 

 

Black Bird Yellow Sun by Steve Light. This board book follows a black bird who begins the day as a bright yellow sun rises, with a new color on each page, until the day ends with a blue moon.

 

 

 

Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff.  The moment Baby Bear wakes up, he’s out to explore the world with his mother (the best discovery? Red strawberries!). The illustrations in this one are STUNNING.

 

 

 

Freight Train by Donald Crews. This gorgeous Caldecott Honor book features a train with cars of all different colors. You see them one by one and then they are all together speeding by. It’s SPECTACULAR. (P.S. This one is included in FreeTime Unlimited).

 

 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle. This is the color book I remember most vividly from my growing up and it’s just as popular now as it was then (in fact, it’s currently ranked #1 in the Children’s Color Books category!).

 

 

 

Red Is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Grace Lin. I’m a SERIOUS Grace Lin fan, so any color book she illustrates is going to be a go for me. And this one is gorgeous.

 

 

 

Mix It Up by Herve Tullet. You can’t go wrong with a Herve Tullet and this one, which starts with the primary colors and then lets you pretend to mix them together on the page is just delightful (and a great way to learn about secondary colors too!)

 

 

 

Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds. We’ve read this one dozens of times in the last few weeks. A classroom gets to paint a mural at their school and one of the little girls wants to paint the sky. But there is no blue paint available for her – could the sky be other colors?

 

 

Festival of Colors by Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal, illustrated by Vashti Harrison. In this gorgeous book about Holi, the Indian festival of colors, two little children gather flowers of different colors to make into colorful powders. (This is the book in the photo above).

 

 

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. All the other animals have their own colors except the chameleon. He takes on everyone else’s color.

 

 

 

The Black and White Factory by Eric Telchin, illustrated by Diego Funck. If your child loves an interactive picture book, this is the color book for you. In the Black and White factory there is NO color allowed, but when a little splash of color seeps in, it’s time for the reader to come to the rescue!

 

 

 

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. One day, three little white mouse discover three jars of vibrant paint in primary colors. You can imagine what happens next.

 

 

Holi Colors by Rina Singh. Unlike most of the books on this list, this book has photographs instead of illustrations and it’s so vibrant!

 

 

 

Little Green Peas by Keith Baker. The Green Peas books are some of my favorites (watch for the ladybug hidden on each page!) and this one is allllll about colors.

 

 

 

Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. You cannot go wrong with a Sandra Boynton board book and this is a favorite at our house as the turkey just cannot figure out how to wear his clothing in a standard way.

 

 

 

Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin. You might know a little something about monsters, but did you know they love mixing up colors?

 

 

 

Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. Because owls sleep during the day, they miss most of the colors of the daytime world. But this little owl is determined to stay up all day and see what colors make up the world when she’s normally snoozing.

 

 

Edible Colors by Jennifer Vogel Bass. Another book with photographs, this shows the wide variety of colors that common fruits and vegetables can be, from yellow cherries to purple broccoli.