MIXED

Beginning with endpapers full of colorful, distinctive faces in primary hues, Chung presents the heavy issue of discrimination using vivid colors and precise text.

“In the beginning, there were three colors:” loud reds, bright yellows, and laid-back blues. But initial urban harmony soon gives way to suspicion and competition about which is the best color, leading to high brick walls and color-specific isolation. The story could end there and already be a timely response to current events. However, one day a Yellow and a Blue “notice” each other and realize their happiness lies in each other’s distinct characteristics. Their relationship grows, and other colors take note, reacting negatively at first. Undeterred, the two “mix” (depicted as a wedding) and create a new color—Green—who embodies bits of each of her parents (“bright like Yellow and calm like Blue”) but is also “a color all her own.” Suddenly other Reds, Blues, and Yellows rediscover one another, too, and begin to mix, transforming the primarily black-and-white urban landscape, which is drawn in a graphic, eye-catching style. This book’s simple and straightforward approach to confronting discrimination is age-appropriate without trivializing difficult, hurtful situations, offering children and adults excellent moments for discussion and personal growth. Mixed-race readers, especially, may appreciate the author’s presentation of mixed-color characters as instruments of change and hope.

A colorful story about celebrating difference as complementary and transformative.