"Color" Stories - Story-Lovers SOS Story Lists

COLOR - COLORS STORIES

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COLOR - COLORS STORIES

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• Books about Color - Colors
• Online links to stories/info - Color - Colors
• SOS: Searching Out Stories/Info - Color - Colors
~~Advice/References - Storytellers, Teachers, Librarians

BOOKS ABOUT COLOR - COLORS - ALL AGES

Book titles are in dark blue and underlined. Click on them to find out more about the books and how to buy them.
To retell these stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
In performance, always credit your sources.
Alphabetized with short descriptions for your convenience and to save you research time.

And to Name but Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue by Laurie Rosenwald. (2007 - Ages 4-8)
Olives, trees, pickles, peas . . . What do they have in common? All of them are green! In her debut picture book, Laurie Rosenwald explores the world of color through humorous poetry and dynamic collages. Pink flamingos aspire to be ballerinas, yellow taxis screech to a halt at red stop signs, and black cats relax with the morning crossword puzzle. This book shows how colors interact and enrich our everyday lives.

Colors of Us (The) by Karen Katz. (2002 - Ages 4-8)
Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades. Through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people.

Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Classics/Dr. Seuess's Abc/Green Eggs and Ham/Cat in the Hat/One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish/Fox in Socks (I Can Read It) by Dr. Seuss. (1992 - Ages 4-8)
A boxed set of the good doctor's greatest works includes "The Cat in the Hat," "Dr. Seuss's ABC," "Fox in Sox," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish."

Goldilicious by Victoria Kann. (2009 - Ages 4-8) (part of a series)
Being Pinkalicious is pinkatastic, especially when she's accompanied by her pet unicorn, Goldilicious. Goldie is a roller-skating, kite-flying, high-jumping unicorn who will protect Pinkalicious from the evil wizardry of her little brother, Peter. Together, Pinkalicious and Goldilicious can conquer anything.

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni. (1995 - Ages 4-8)
Little blue and little yellow share wonderful adventures.One day, they can't find one another. When they finally meet, they are overjoyed. They hug until they become green. But where did little blue and little yellow go? Are they lost?

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ONLINE LINKS TO STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT COLOR - COLORS

Online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to find more stories / information.
To retell these stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
Story titles are in quotation marks.
Short descriptions included for your convenience and to save you research time.

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SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT COLOR - COLORS
Advice, Discussion and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians
(excerpts from Storytell listserv plus original research)

Book titles and online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them for more information.
Posts to Storytell are added chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World.

1) Jennie Jenkins from Folksinger's Wordbook by Fred and Irwin Silber. Song lyrics with green.

2) "I Can Sing a Rainbow" from Folksinger's Wordbook by Fred and Irwin Silber. Song lyrics with red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue.
Added: Lyrics and melody are at:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/singarainbow.htm
John 7/27/07

3) Rainbow Round Me by Ruth Pelham (recorded on a Gentle Windscassette). Song with yellow, green, pink, white and orange. Ruth teaches American sign to go with this lovely, simple "zipper" song, mainly the chorus, and at the end, everyone may whistle the chorus, or hum it, or la la it, or sign it silently before coming back in to sing it boldly one last time.

4) "Tale of Tipingee" from The Magic Orange Tree: and Other Haitian Folktales by Diane Wolkstein.

5) Stories with colors:
Little Red Riding Hood
Juan Bobo and the Horse of Seven Colors (A Puerto Rican Legend)
How The Rainbow Lorikeet Got its Colors (Australia)
Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs (Sunburst Book)
Paul Bunyan and His Blue Ox
"The Little Red House Without A Door" in Easy-To-Tell Stories for Young Children by Annette Harrison
Best in Children's Books - Robinson Crusoe; Michael Who Missed His Train; The Princess on the Glass Hill (there are three golden balls in the story); The Straw, the Coal and the Bean; Clara Barton, Angel of the Battlefield; Card Games Are Fun; Why Men Hunt Rocks -
"The Rose Prince" - Peace Tales by Margaret Read Macdonald
"The Black Hound" - Peace Tales by MRM

And for your Irish soul, the titles below are found in Celtic Fairy Tales by Isabelle Brent.
"Fair, Brown and Trembling"
"The Brown Bear of the Green Glen"
"The Black Bull of Norroway"
"The Black Cat"

6) All the tales listed below are found at this website:
Classic Tales and Fables
http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/folktale.htm
Another Little Red Hen
Blue Beard
The Blue Mountains
The Blue Parrott
The Blue Beard
The Black Sheep
The White Cat
The White Doe
The White Dove
The White Duck
The God-Bearded Man
The Golden Arm
The Golden Blackbird
The Goldn Branch
The Golden Cobwebs
The Golden Goose
The Golden Grab
The Golden Lion
The Golden Mermaid
The Golden River
The Golden Headed Fish
The Green Knight
How We Came to Have Pink Roses
The Little Green Frog
The Little Red Hen
The Three Princesses of Whiteland
The Red Shoes

7) All the songs listed below are at this website. Some of the songs even have the music to go with the words.
KIDiddles (TM) - Mojo's Musical Mouseum: Complete Song List
http://www.kididdles.com/mouseum/allsongs.html
The Old Gray Mare
Baa Baa Black Sheep
The Blue Tail Fly
Farmer Brown's Cow
Golden Days
The Golden Rule
Golden Slumbers
In Our Pretty Garden Green
Little Brown Jug
Little Golden Stars
Lavender's Blue
Little Red Wagon
Little Robin Redbreast
Red Leaves Gold Leaves
Red River Valley
Ten Green Bottles
The Wearing of the Green
Yellow Rose of Texas

8) I found all of these suggestions on a website that had a thread going about songs with colors in the title.
Rainbow Connection ~ Kermit the Frog
Colors by Donovan
Colour My World ~ Chicago
Blue Velvet ~ Bobby Vinton
Yellow Submarine by the Beatles
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/6797/submarine.html#yellowsubmarine

Red Rubber Ball ~ The Cyrkle Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle
The Green, Green Grass of Home The Green, Green Grass of Home / The old home town looks so same
http://ingeb.org/songs/greengre.html

Purple People Eater Purple People Eater
http://www.sneeze.dircon.co.uk/purp.html

White Christmas ~ Bing Crosby
Silver Bells
Neil Young - Heart of Gold
White Room / Those Were The Days ~ Cream
Brown Eyed Girl ~ Van Morrison

9) "Big Blue Phrog" by Peter Paul and Mary.

10) The Iroquois story retold by Joe Bruchac called "How Buzzard Got His Feathers."

11) The Chinese story, The Magic Brocade: A Tale of China, in which the old widow weaves the picture of the large white house set in a green meadow with bright red flowers and a sparkling river winding through it.

12) Purple, Green and Yellow (Annikins) by Robert Munsch.

13) "The First Rainbow" found in Stories California Indians Told

14) "I Know the Colors of the Rainbow" sung by Ella Jenkins.

15) "The Blue Rose" at
http://www.rosethestorylady.com

16) Freedom Bird in Ready-To-Tell Tales (American Storytelling) by Holt and Moony.
Full text available at:
http://www.story-lovers.com/listsfreedombirdtext.html

17) Did anyone mention "The Blue Bird of Happiness"? "The Snow Queen"?

18) "The Girl Who Wore Too Much" by Margaret Read Mac Donald can be easily used for this theme. She tries to wear all her dresses--the red one, blue one, etc. at one time to a party so she'll be the most beautiful girl there. It's a lot of fun to tell, and good for audience participation.

19) Query:
"The Blue Rose" reminds me of a project I have been working on sporadically, when I have time. Our theme for this summer's Summer Reading Program is "Color Your World with Reading." I am trying to work up a program, "Color Your World with Story," featuring world folktales that in some feature color - like "The Blue Rose" or "The Black Prince" or "The Firebird." I am also working on a bibliography of picture book retellings of folktales that feature color or rainbows - "Gawain and the Green Knight," possibly "The Red Shoes" (although I really dislike this story personally and can't tell it), "How the Animals Got Their Colors," etc. I haven't gotten very far yet because I haven't had much time to work on it, and my list is at work, so I can't check and see what is on it. When it is done, I will be happy to share it with all of you, of course. For the bibliography, the stories must be readily available in picture book form. For my own program, they need not be.
Vicky D.

Responses:

a) Browsing through my collections, I just found an Indian story called "The Bright Blue Jackal." A Jackal accidently falls into a pot of indigo dye outside a tailor's house at the edge of town. The tailor, thinking the jackal has died, tips him out of the tub and the jackal runs off to the forest. Once he sees his reflection, he decides to take advantage of it. He tells the other animals he's been chosen by the Goddess of the forest to be their king and they all begin treating him as such. He gets very bossy and overbearing. The other jackals see through his blue disguise and come up with a plan to bring him down. They wait until he is holding court and begin to howl at the moon. The blue jackal can't resist and starts howling as well. Then the other animals, lions, tigers, etc. realize that he is just an ordinary jackal dyed blue. They begin to chase him off but he disappears. And that is why blue jackals are never seen in the forest.
This is in A Twist in the Tail: Animal Stories From Around The World by Mary Hoffman and Jan Ormerod. Henry Holt, 1998.
Judy S.

b) Little Red Riding Hood may be too easy. The Blue Faience Hippopotamus by Joan Grant. She claims she had "far sight" and that this story was told to her by a servant when she lived in Egypt thousands of years before. She thought everyone had far sight until she was older. She wrote other stories that she claimed as hers but there are a handful that she would not claim as her own. She said they were folk tales revealed to her in her far sight state.

The Purple Gorilla (never told it - but others talk about it all the time).
Here's one version:
http://www.folktale.net/gorilla.html

The Green Gourd: A North Carolina Folktale, retold by C.W. Hunter; illustrated by Tony Griego.
How about The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest / edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling ; decorations by Charles Vess.

c) "Ruby Red Lips" (shaggy dog)
Here's the bare bones version sent in by Ina V.D. for Bare Bones #4 - Halloween
[Funny, semi-scary, jump story. Folktale, also called "The Mischievous Little Girl" and "The Hideous Creature." Many sources, including Ready-To-Tell Tales (American Storytelling) by Holt & Mooney or "Red Lips" in Crazy Gibberish: And Other Story Hour Stretches by Naomi Baltuck.
Summary: This old, scary, but humorous, story, Ruby Red Lips, has many versions about a mysterious stranger who keeps asking a little girl, "Do you want to see what I do with my long red fingernails and my ruby red lips?"
Note: Biggest variations are in the opening, You can build up the story of the girl and her brother, or a girl in a new neighborhood, or youngster visiting a strange house. All of these are characteristics of jump stories—build up as much as you need and as time allows.]
Bones:
Once upon a time there was a girl named Lucy who was very excited about moving to a new house. She was going to have her own room for the very first time in her life! Lucy loved her bedroom on the first floor near the back of the house by the old, oak tree.

The first night, her parents went to bed. Then Lucy went to bed. She was in her room...all by herself..in the dark..when she heard a tap, tap, tap, tap outside her window.

She looked outside too see a woman with long, wild, black hair, a pale white face, long bony fingers, and the long red fingernails. The woman cried out,, "Lucy, do you know..what I can do..with my long red fingernails...and my ruby red lips?" "NO!" said Lucy, “and I don't want to know!" She slammed the window and jumped in bed and pulled the covers over her head. She did not move all night.

The next night when she went to bed she heard the tap tap tap on her window again..(same description and refrain from the hideous creature as the night before) Again she says No! and slams the window. She stays under the bed all night.

The next night when she went to bed, she heard the tap tap tap on her window...(same description and refrain from the hideous creature as the night before) Again she says No! and slams the window. She stays in the closet all night.

The next night when she went to bed, she put the pillow over head. Still she head the tap, tap, tap at the window. (Same description of woman, same refrain) Lucy WAS tired, Lucy WAS upset, Lucy NEEDED to get some sleep, so Lucy opened the window and yelled, "What, what, WHAT? Every night you come here Every night you say (repeat refrain).Well, I don't know! I don't know! And I don't care! Answer the question yourself. What do you do with your long red fingernails and your big red lips?"

The creature looked at the girl, smiled hideously, slowly reached up with one of its long long red fingernails, reached toward its two big red lips and went "B-b-b-l-l-b-b-b-b-l-l-l-l-l-l***

And that is the end of the story of the mischievous young girl and the hideous creature with ruby red lips.

*** The sound a finger makes when it goes up and down between two big red lips-for approximately five seconds!

Tips: Can be told with props, such as fake nails and red candy lips. Remember to use a witchy voice for the creature. Practice so that you can tell this story with a straight face.

d) The Golden Axe and Other Folk Tales of Compassion and Greed (also features a silver axe and a bronze axe)
Review from Storyline - Spring 2000, (volume 16, No. 1)
"When I started reading this clear and well written book, I found I could hardly put it down because the stories are fascinating and not always easy to find in the usual sources. Each story is analyzed, the motifs listed, and the book itself is finely crafted. An introductory chapter provides tips on how to tell stories. This book gives the reader a wealth of insight and useful analysis that will help in both understanding and telling stories.
Carolyn Power, reviewer

The Golden Axe contains fifty-six versions of a folktale collected in thirty countries and three American Indian nations. Together with puppet and play scripts, charts, a classroom game, story notes, and bibliographies of additional scripts and children's books based on this tale, the Golden Axe is designed for teachers and older children interested in how a story adapts to different worlkdviews.

.....Response to above:
For those of you teachers faced with NCLB high stakes testing--this story appeared in an ITBS test prep booklet for third grade under the title Mercury and the Woodsman. This particular passage required students to interpret the moral of the story as well as identify the genre and infer the motives of the greedy neighbor. This for 3rd grade!!!

If you are working in the schools it helps to be familiar with your states' standards (available through the state department of education website) More and more states have a required writing component on their tests (so I don't get what all the hoopla about the essay on the new SAT is about. Soon enough most kids will have had ample experience writing essays for standardized tests)

According to Liz Parkhurst of August House (at a publishing workshop some years ago) more and more short stories and folktales are being used on these standardized tests as reading comp passages.
If you are publishing your stories, be sure to retain those rights--the market is large.
Faye H.

e) Anansi and the Green Moss-covered Rock as told by Eric Kimmel.

Then there are the books but the stories (not necessarily with color) collected in Andrew Langs' Books - The Olive Fairy Tale Book, etc.
You were wanting folktales, right? My favorite authored story is Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch. He freely gives permission to tell his stories
And then there's my own story Red Shoes for a Real Princess.
Marilyn K.

f) Well, you have to check through the Colour Fairytale Books, by Andrew Lang, if only to be able to put them in the bibliography! There's an online index to their contents, for speed of research - with a link from my Story Links page if you don't already know the index.
Tim S.

g) There are probably a lot of stories with animals having a color, such as The White Cat. As a fellow children's librarian I'm sure you know of Ashley Bryan's wonderful picture book Beautiful Blackbird in which the blackbird gives all the other birds their colors and patterns. I'm sure I know of other stories too, they just aren't coming to me. But, I'm interested in finding some too so I'll work on it and I also wanted to put my 2 cents worth in for a fellow children's librarian.
Kat M.

h) That reminded me of the coyote story where he wants blue eyes. He trades them and sees blue, then red berries and sees red, etc.
And this reminded me of Little Crab and His Magic Eyes in MRM's Twenty Tellable Tales. The jaguar's eyes are replaced with two bright blue berries.

I have been putting my bibliography and website info together for an upcoming workshop. I included this website one for sure.
Andrew Lang ~ The Literature Network
There isn't a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but a prism of fairytale books to add to your riches.
http://www.online-literature.com/andrew_lang/
Karen C.

20) "Why the Snowdrop is White"
[Basically all the other colors were gone, but instead a drop of green dots its head and it is the FIRST flower of Spring! There is the tale of why the snowdrop is white. I heard this told in a church context but am reluctant to make specific references to God when working in public institutions so I usually put in a Great Spirit or some such instead.
Bones: When all the flowers came to God to be given their colours the snowdrop was last in the queue. His paint box was empty apart from one drop of green paint so he suggests that the snowdrop should go and ask the other flowers to give up some of their colour. The snowdrop goes to one flower after another and none of them will share their colour
(I usually pick three things in bloom in the conservatories at the time or something the kids will know - the flashier the better)
So it goes back sadly to its home and prepares to flower, pure white. The snowdrop is sad and hanging its head. God looks down and feels sorry for the colourless flower, he reaches down and touches it leaving the last drop of green paint on its hanging head. To make up for its lack of colour the snowdrop is always the first flower we see bursting through frozen ground, no one is disappointed by its lack of colour now just happy to know that spring is on its way.
Ina V.D.

21) Re the thread about stories involving colors.
Andrea Helman wrote the text for a children's picture book Wild Colors which may be of interest.
Amazon.com says:
International nature photographer Gavriel Jecan has traveled the globe to bring back stunning photographs of wildlife, insects, and plants that illustrate the amazing colors of the natural world. Andrea Helman's informative text offers a factual tidbit about each creature, often explaining how that coloring serves the animal. Helman has a knack for digging up fascinating nature facts that interest both children and adults. In the process of learning to name the colors, this book imparts to children a sense of wonder about the natural world: white polar bears, bright green frogs, red starfish, brown impalas, a black bear, and more.

I don't know if her text offered stories for each segment. On the Environmental Storytelling listserv, she says that in general she tries to avoid Pourquoi stories whose "explanations" do not support understanding of the actual function of the coloring, etc.
Fran S.

22) Juan Bobo and the Horse of Seven Colors (A Puerto Rican Legend)
There are are a few picture book versions of this story.
Bones:
Juan Bobo is challenged with making the princess laugh. His magical horse has a rainbow-colored mane. JB is given a hair of each color which he uses (often comically) to solve a problem arising from getting what he wishes for. He ultimately wins the princess and has a hair remaining which he doesn't need to use since in the end he has everything he could ever want.
Faye H.

23) Rives Collins does "The Tailor" by letting the audience tell him what colors are in the piece of cloth the tailor gets to make his coat. He then repeats the colors as the garment becomes a jacket, vest, etc.
Jean B. 5/31/05

24) This came as an attachment to a FOLKTAILS- Puppets with a Tale, Emperor Penguin Puppet, Folkmanis, Inc. - it's copyrighted by Madeleine Scott.

When all animals lived on First Island, the Emperor penguin family was gray. The Old One offered them many colors to paint themselves, but they just argued about it. "Red like the flowers is best," said the mother.

"The green of trees is more soothing, "said the father.
The baby, being a baby, didn't care.

Tired of the constant quarreling, the Old One set them afloat on a piece of the Island. They drifted south and finally came to the frozen lands at the bottom of the world where they live today.

Here, there was nothing to quarrel about for there were no colors, only white and black. And so they picked up their feather brushes and painted their fronts Frost White and their back Inky Sea Black. "Handsome, " they both agreed.

To better admire themselves, they turned toward the light of the setting sun. And as it sank into winter sleep, one last ray splashed their faces with yellow. They were so content, they didn't even mind that their baby wanted to stay gray.

"Brushes are too tickly," she said.
© by Madeleine Scott
Ina V.D. 5/5/06

25) There's the story of "Truth and Story."
Not one I tell, and I can't remember some variants which I know have been posted. But it is on the lines of:
Truth, naked and shining white, is spurned by all who meet her.
Dejected, she asks Story why she is rejected whereas Story is so popular.
Story explains that it is her coat of many colours which attract everyone's admiration.
Invites Truth to go with her and clothe herself in her colourful coat. Together they now wander the world, loved by all who meet their combined radiance.
Richard M. Germany 5/6/06

26) An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown
Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel: all claimed that they were the best, the most important, the most useful, the favorite.

GREEN said: "Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, trees, leaves - without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority."

BLUE interrupted: "You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing."

YELLOW chuckled: "You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun."

ORANGE started next to blow her trumpet: "I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and pawpaws. I don't hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you."

RED could stand it no longer. He shouted out: "I am the ruler of all of you - I am blood - life's blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy."

PURPLE rose up to his full height. He was very tall and spoke with great pomp: "I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me - they listen and obey."

Finally, INDIGO spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination: "Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace."

And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening - thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort.

In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak: "You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me."

Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands. The rain continued: "From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow."

And so, whenever a good rain washes the world, and a rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.
•••••

Created 2005; last update 6/10/09

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