Blue is my favorite color, always has been. Mom told me I'd outgrow it, but so far, I haven't. In a silly mood one day, I looked for books dealing with 'blue'. :-)

One simple item, so many uses! It is likely that we all have at least one. They can be seen (with the use of Google zoom) from earth's orbit. The Blue Tarp Bible: Best Uses, Worst Abuses of the (Unsightly) Fabric That Binds America, by Ron C. Judd is a witty look at this ubiquitous 'tool', it's history and use in our society. ;-)

Like books, there are a few pieces of music where the opening phrase immediately identifies it: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5; Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man; Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra; and, of course, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue! Turns out it was written in a very short space of time (and Gershwin actually improvised on the piano at the debut). Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, by Anna Harwell Celenza and illustrated by JoAnn E. Kitchel is a nice retelling of this event.

I remember reading something for an Education class (so many decades ago) explaining how a teacher might 'encourage' a child to use green for trees, red for apples, etc. My thought was 'why?' ... if art is supposed to be a means of self expression, then why force what was considered 'normal' on a student? Eric Carle lived in Germany as a child and young adult. An art teacher showed him works by France Marc (among others) ... art that had been banned by the Nazi party. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse is his tribute to Marc and will (hopefully) encourage youngsters (or even adults) to go ahead and think differently. (Love the polka dot donkey)!

Another read from the long ago ... Blue Willow, by Doris Gates. It was a Newbery Honor Book, although I probably didn't pay much attention to that. What intrigued me was that it was about a plate with the same design we had at home. In this case, it is the one special item a migrant family kept as they moved from job to job during the Depression. When they moved into a shack near a river with willows, friends, and a school, Janey Larkin was sure it was where they'd be able to stay for a while. Did they?

Reading Hermit With Dog