Blue Goose

All Ages

Birth - 12 months

Blue Goose

by Nancy Tafuri

When Farmer Gray takes a trip, Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decide to paint their black-and-white farm. Red Hen paints the barn red and White Duck paints the fence white. Then Blue Goose and Yellow Chick pour their paint together to make green for the grass and trees. By the time Farmer Gray comes back, the whole farm is full of color--what a wonderful surprise incorporating primary and secondary colors, as well as animals, this is a simple and engaging way for young children to learn basic concepts.

Also available in hardcover format.

Age: 1 Year-olds | Title: Blue Goose | Author: Nancy Tafuri | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Also available in hardcover format.

Why we chose this book

Blue Goose and his friends, Yellow Chick, White Duck, and Red Rooster, use teamwork to paint their barnyard all the colors of the rainbow to surprise their Farmer Grey. The large pictures begin with all of the background in black-and-white, but as the birds paint together, each page gains more color. The simple sentences filled with repetition of the birds' names and colors is perfect for learning to identify the different colors and beginning to read.

The farmyard birds work together, mixing their paint to create new colors, like when Red Hen and Yellow Chick mixed their colors to make orange for the barn shutters. These examples in the book, and the color chart on the back cover provide opportunities for you to teach your little one the colors and how they are made. It also creates an environment to talk about teamwork and friendship; because when the birds work together they have more colors to play with and get more done. Children of varying ages can enjoy this book, a one-year-old may love pointing at the animals and colors and have you repeat them, while a four-year-old may like reciting the book back to you or begin to recognize the color words.

My four-year-old niece, Emily, enjoyed this book and wanted to paint together afterward. We practiced mixing the colors and creating green, orange, and purple, just like Blue Goose and his friends. Emily wanted to draw her own barnyard with animals, and then paint them silly colors. Her favorite was the purple cow, but she was sure to also include a blue goose.

--Audra

About the author and illustrator

Nancy Tafuri began drawing at a very young age. She recalls that her mother "thought [she] would make a great interior decorator." But Tafuri had other ideas: "The more I thought about it the more I realized that I didn't want to fix up other people's houses. I had no idea that you could grow up to be a children's book illustrator."

Nancy's first big break as an illustrator for children's books came when she was given the opportunity to work on George Shannon's The Piney Woods Peddler in 1980. She modeled her illustrations on her husband and the old Pennsylvania gristmill they were living in at the time, and the book was published in 1981. The Piney Woods Peddler proceeded to win a Children's Choice citation from the International Reading Association and Tafuri's output has been prolific ever since.

Nancy says that when she was little she loved animals and wanted to draw them. As an illustrator, she always works very hard on "getting all the facts correct in my illustrations. Each animal or rock formation has to be correct. Even though my books aren't nonfiction, the feeling of accuracy has to be there."

Nancy has received several citations and awards for her work, including the Caldecott Honor Award for Have You Seen My Duckling? She lives in the country with her husband and daughter.