An intricate and satisfying homage to green, the color of all creation, from the “Queen of the concept book”

“Subtle cutouts on each richly painted page of Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s ‘Green’ similarly create a mystical sense of complexity and continuity. In this case, the images on each page refer both backward and forward, permitting a fascinating interplay of shade and hue, from the ‘khaki green’ of a lizard to the ‘never green’ of a stop sign.”–The Wall Street Journal

Die cut pages bring surprise after surprise in this magical new book from the “Queen of the concept book”—an intricate and satisfying homage to green, the color of all creation.

How many kinds of green are there? There’s the lush green of a forest on a late spring day, the fresh, juicy green of a just-cut lime, the incandescent green of a firefly, and the vivid aquamarine of a tropical sea. In her newest book, Caldecott and Geisel Honor Book author Laura Vaccaro Seeger fashions an homage to a single color and, in doing so, creates a book that will delight and, quite possibly astonish you.

“…the reader who settles down and slowly pages through its gorgeous acrylic paintings or, better yet, reads it aloud to a young child, will find rich rewards. Each spread describes a particular shade of green — forest green, sea green, lime green, pea green, jungle green — and the list actually does go on and on.”–New York Times

One Amazon reviewer wrote:

Sometimes you just want to show a kid a beautiful picture book. Sometimes you also want that book to be recent. That’s the tricky part. Not that there aren’t pretty little picture books churned out of publishing houses every day. Of course there are. But when you want something that distinguishes itself and draws attention without sparkles or glitter the search can be a little fraught. We children’s librarians sit and wait for true beauty to fall into our laps. The last time I saw it happen was Jerry Pinkney’s The Lion & the Mouse. Now I’m seeing it again with Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Green. I mean just look at that cover. I vacillate between wanting to smear those thick paints with my hands and wanting to lick it to see if it tastes like green frosting. If my weirdness is any kind of a litmus test, kids will definitely get a visceral reaction when they flip through the pages. I know we’re talking colors here but if I were to capture this book in a single word then there’s only one that would do: Delicious.

Open the book and the first pictures you see are of a woodland scene. Two leaves hang off a nearby tree as the text reads “forest green”. Turn the page and those leaves, cut into the paper itself, flip over to two fishies swimming in the deep blue sea. A tortoise swims lazily by, bubbles rising from its head (“sea green”). Another page and the holes of the bubbles are turned over to become the raised bumps on a lime. And so it goes with each new hole or cut connecting one kind of green to another. We see khaki greens, wacky greens, slow greens and glow greens until at last Seeger fills the page with boxes filled with different kinds of green. This is followed by a stop sign and the words “never green” against an autumn background. On the next page it is winter and “no green” followed by an image of a boy planting something. The final spread shows a man and his daughter gazing at a tree. The description: “forever green”. You bet.

According to –Publishers Weekly, “Seeger’s skill at creating simple yet wonderfully effective concept books, as well as her mastery of die-cuts that delight in unexpected and ingenious ways, are in full evidence in this salute to the color green.”

Among Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s many distinctive books for children are First the Egg–a Caldecott Honor Book and a Geisel Honor Book; One Boy–a Geisel Honor Book; and Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories–winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book award. Laura lives on Long Island with her husband, Chris, their two sons, Drew and Dylan, and their dog, Copper.

 ”Just when it seems that there could not possibly be anything new to present about this trendy color, Seeger creates a tactile treat that yields surprise with every page turn.”–School Library Journal