It's a Great Big Colourful World
On waking, Otto the cat wonders why everything is so grey. Calm Leon shares with Otto the charm of the many different shades of grey, and shows him that plenty of beautiful things are grey. From this, the chameleon takes him on a journey through the world of colour. This Encyclopaedia Otto-colorista is a feast for the eyes: after the restrained grey, black and white, we discover extravagant colours. From the yellow submarine to an orange tiger in Orange County, from a red fire engine to pink flamingos, from the Blues to dinosaurs in Greenland and Brown Eyed Girls, Schamp illustrates each colour with two spreads filled with objects and characters. And on each page the reader can try to find Calm Leon and Otto who adapt to the predominant colour. In the end, all the colours come together for a journey through the four seasons.
We seldom see so much humour, beauty and linguistic creativity.Cutting Edge, on 'Show & Tell Me the World'
Like his previous work, 'It's a Great Big Colourful World' is another typical Tom Schamp: the pages are a riot of colour and detail and there is always something new to discover. Schamp also slips puns, allusions and references to other illustrators (no book about colours should be without Elmer) into his work, so as well as a wonderful book for children to explore, it will elicit plenty of laughs from adults.