True Colors - by Goncalo Viana (Hardcover)

Number of Pages: 38
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Sub-Genre: Imagination & Play
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Age Range: 9-12 Years
Author: Gonçalo Viana
Language: English

Book Synopsis

A green cloud and a white tree? Who is responsible for illustrating this book? True Colors begins innocently with two friends, their dog, and their kite, but each time the story gets started, more colors seem to go awry. The narrator implores the reader to help as townspeople, a group of scientists, and the town tailor all try to determine what is going wrong. As the characters engage in comical attempts to reverse the colors, the two friends show us that colors can do all sorts of amazing tricks--with a little imagination. Gonçalo Viana's bold, retro illustration style brings joy and laughter to all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Review Quotes

"This book is interactive, hilarious, and a sight to behold. As the reader begins, a white tree causes the narrator to pause. Trees aren't white! This illustrator, the narrator observes, must be terrible. But things only get more bizarre from there as the narrator implores the reader to help as townspeople, a group of scientists, and the town tailor all try to determine what is going wrong. A very fun book!"
- Book Riot,


"Full of peculiar buzz...[T]he uncanny artwork-walls of eyes, the sun as a lime-green eyeball, and all the weird science-will attract readers with a taste for the surreal."
- Kirkus Reviews,

About the Author

Gonçalo Viana lives in his hometown of Lisbon, Portugal, a city famed for its bright lights and custard tarts. Though trained as an architect, Viana works as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines around the globe. Originally published in Portuguese, True Colors earned a 2020 Opera Prima Special Mention at the Bologna International Children's Book Fair.