Leo Lionni Talks Colors and Tolerance in Little Blue and Little Yellow

Illustrations in children’s books don’t have to be complicated to be effective. One book that always springs to mind when I think of simple illustrations is Shel Silverstein’s The Missing Piece, along with its sequel, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. With just a couple of basic shapes, Silverstein managed to weave a thought-provoking story. While Silverstein used geometry to tell his tale, Leo Lionni’s little blue and little yellow utilizes knowledge of the color spectrum. Instead of how shapes fit together, the focus is on how two colors, when combined, form a new color.

Lionni’s story is a very simple one that nonetheless can be read on multiple levels. Little blue and little yellow are best friends. Each is represented by a large dot of paint, while other dots represent their classmates and bigger blobs represent their parents. There are no details to be found in any of the illustrations; it’s just stretches of color. The characters are circles or ovals, and various locations are also indicated by blobs of paint. Most pages have a white background, but for dramatic emphasis, one page is black and another is red. It’s not much to work with, but alongside Lionni’s simple narration, these colors sing.

The most dramatic moment comes when, after some time apart, little blue finds little yellow, and both are so overjoyed that they hug each other to the point that each becomes green. Looking at that series of pictures, one could almost swear that they are smiling. Complications come in when they return home to their parents, who no longer recognize them because they are green.

What follows is both a lesson in color mixing and a reflection on how two people’s love for one another has the capacity to change both in dramatic ways. As such, it also becomes a lesson in tolerance, encouraging parents to accept their children’s friends and be open to the ways in which that friendship might alter their worldview.

Like most of the books I’ve been reading lately, little blue and little yellow is a find from 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. Though I’ve encountered Lionni before, I hadn’t heard of this book. It’s been around for 50 years, and in this anniversary edition, there’s a note from Lionni, who died in 1999, explaining the genesis of his idea. That recollection, centering on a train trip with his granddaughters, is almost as sweet as the story itself. For young and old alike, I recommend this colorful little book.