First Colours

First Colours by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press) HB Board Book RRP $14.95 ISBN 9781923135468

Here is a concept rhyming board book for babies and toddlers, the format of which is larger than most board books. Its focus is on Australian animals, plants, and insects: it is beautifully designed, drawn and coloured.

After the first impressive fly pages of flying insects in a background of yellow landscape, the text begins: ‘From the deepest blue sea to the centre’s red sand, can you find a rainbow across this wild land?’   The book then proceeds with the colour red, with pictures of insects such as a redback spider, a Mount Kaputar pink slug, and animals such as a crimson rosella and a flame robin. Also, there’s a Christmas Island red crab, and a Sturt’s desert pea, not to mention a red-bellied black snake. All twelve red objects on the first double page are named (for example, a scarlet banksia, and a flame bottletree).

Other colours which the reader can learn about are orange (such as an orange chat and a mountain frog), yellow (yellow-bellied glider), green, blue, purple (surprise -- there’s even a purple-necked wallaby), and grey. Children might know some of the animals – such as a grey koala, a green-backed gulf snapping turtle, and a blue soldier crab.

At the end of the book, the words read, ‘You have found a rainbow, flame red to forest green. Even in the night, sometimes colours can be seen!’

From red rosellas to purple sea daisies, here in this concept board book is an introduction to the wildlife of Australia for the littlest nature lovers.