My Blue Is Happy Read-Aloud

I have written before about the student book clubs I facilitate for. Quite often colleagues will ask my why I do it (particularly when I'm there waiting for a parent to pick up their child an hour and a half late). There are many reasons, but I think selfishly one of the big ones is that every year I discover new books. The way our club works is the district library services department chooses the books we read. Most of them are Bluebonnet Nominees, and the rest are usually classics.

This book is on our list this year and one of my former students had been asking me for it since she saw the list of books. She said "Miss Trayers, this one sounds really interesting from the title" and I had to agree. So when I was finally able to purchase a copy I dove right in. And I really LOVED it! Then I shared it with our group and I LOVED it even more! I think it makes for a wonderful read-aloud. It's called:

It's about how different people can see things differently. For example to many people blue represents sadness, but not to this narrator. I see so many opportunities to apply this as a Big Idea! I mean who decides what color represents what? Is it society, is it our experiences? It reminded me of an article I read recently in a magazine called Mental Floss (if you didn't know this already, I love learning about the origins of things and useless trivia!). This is the article: http://mentalfloss.com/

This is what it says about pink and blue baby clothes: "When pink and blue baby clothes were introduced in the mid-19th century, there weren't strict rules for how to wear them. Some people thought blue clothing looked better on blue-eyed, blonde babies and pink on brown-eyed brunettes. Others suggested that boys looked better in pink, because it was a stronger color." Who knew?!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share-I thought it was a really simple story, that could be very thought-provoking! :)