Title: The Color Cycle
Author: Eric Peplinski
Illustrator: Annalyn Peplinski
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-5462-0045-1
Genre: Juvenile Fiction / Concepts / Colors
Pages: 22
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Created as a father and daughter project, Eric and Annalyn Peplinski bring readers on a journey through the four seasons by way of their sense of colors. Eric, being a multi- talented person having the gift of writing words, poetry and lyrics brings the terse descriptions of the seasons into poetic prose detailing each of the special time of year’s prevailing coloration. His daughter, Annalyn, being at the time when illustrating this book in her single-digit years of age, colors the pages with crayon style drawings bringing together her imagination and developing skills to a level of imagery most children of all ages will appreciate. As the whole is better than the sum of its parts, the synergy of the words and pictures complete this project in which the Peplinski family can have as a proud accomplishment of bringing a book from concept to publication.
Intended for the book to be memorized upon finishing multiple readings, due to the shortness of the text, Eric eludes his readers into thinking about the underlying feelings and emotions of the poetry. He wishes readers to ponder the sentences for all to find deeper meanings and subliminal emotions in his poetry. Having his child’s coloring interleaved within the book provides an environment for her imagination to expand in the fanciful realm of art. Learning from the introduction and ending acknowledgements of Eric’s musical talent, I feel it may have been a good idea to showcase a musical score to this book to further enhance the readers’ emotional response.
The pictures are bright and colorful with the right balance between interesting to look at and simple enough to understand for young children. The Color Cycle does a great job of teaching kids about the changing seasons with the illustrations and color formation using simple rhyming sentences for youngsters to understand, and guiding them through the seasons. This would be a wonderful gift and would be appropriate for all preschool thru early elementary.
