SHELF AWARENESS - NOVEMBER 12, 2021
STARRED REVIEW

RED by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Readers of Laura Vaccaro Seeger's previous picture-book homages to color--the Caldecott Honoree Green and its follow-up, Blue--may have anticipated the publication of the ravishing Red. What they probably couldn't have foreseen was Seeger's turn toward a dramatic story; as she puts it in her author's note, she's focusing on "red as in anger and discord, but also as in love and compassion."

As with Red's predecessors, Seeger pairs the sparest rhyming text with lovingly labored-over die-cut art. A spread featuring the words "light red" finds a little red fox sleeping on a rock at sunrise; three mushrooms in the scene become, with the turn of a die-cut page, three rocks in an expanse of grass on which the fox finds itself alone: "lost red." One page later, the fox is caught after dark in a car's headlights: "bright red." As the story proceeds, types of red continue to correspond with the fox's circumstances, as when the "rust red" of some nails leads to "blood red"--an injured paw.

Seeger's acrylics are up to the heavy lifting required by a minimal text. Each spread wears its brushstrokes with pride, the paint at times thin enough to let the canvas peek through. The technique reminds attentive readers of the human presence behind Red, which aligns with the book's message: while the specter of danger looms over the fox, human kindness prevails in the form of a girl who plays a key role in the story. In her author's note, Seeger nudges readers to consider that the girl may have played a part in a previous book in the author's mind-expanding triad.

--Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author

Discover: This gorgeous picture book features a fox for whom the titular color corresponds with both danger and salvation.