| The Color Kittens | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Margaret Wise Brown |
| Illustrator | Alice and Martin Provensen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Little Golden Books |
| Publication date | 1949 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 24 |
| ISBN | 0-307-10234-3 |
| OCLC Number | 42383466 |
| Dewey Decimal | [E] 21 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.B8163 Cm 2000 |
The Color Kittens is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen published in 1949.
The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts, amusingly, lead to a variety of different hues--none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!"
Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that, "In a way, the book was written to teach facts about color, but its real subject is the huge pleasure to be found in the seeing and feeling of color [...]".[1] Regina Barreca, professor of English literature and feminist theory, writes in a humorous column featuring the book that, "The Color Kittens continues to capture my heart and my imagination because there is something about the sheer messiness of discovery and creativity that Hush and Brush embody that I’ve never quite found in another book.”[2] Suzanne Rahn notes that Hush and Brush’s active creativity and exploration have some parallels among Brown’s other cat characters, such as the drastically less-humanized Pussycat, who are much more passive in their representation of the creative state Brown called “Cat Life”.[3]