Colors of Habitats (Nature’s Wonderful Colors)

This is not a little children’s picture book, but one for children who are a mature age ten and up, and who have a real interest in art and prose poems. This is a beautiful and unusual guide for people interested in working in any kind of colors for drawing or painting subjects from nature. Twelve habitats are featured on a spread apiece: Polar regions, Taiga, Peatbog, Deciduous forest, Lake, Meadow, The Mediterranean, Coral reefs, Desert, Savannah, Rainforest, and Cave. Each spread has a dozen circles across the top showing the color palette used in that habitat. There is also a prose poem about the habitat and the flora and fauna living there, as well as many illustrations of the flora and fauna, many more than mentioned in the poem. In the back of the book, there is a spread with a color wheel and some instruction about how to combine colors, which are warm and cool colors, and how to look to nature for guidance in the use of color. This is a perfect book to engender experimentation in color and illustration for young people and even adults who are dipping their toes in drawing and painting.