One of the first things parents usually teach their preschoolers are colors. Colors are all around us and so pretty too! Here are 15 preschooler approved colors books to read with your little one. These are not only great stories, but also a fun way to work on color identification!
Colors Books
1. What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz —
This is such a cool book — not only does it devote a page to each color, it has a matching color ribbon that stretches across each page. As you turn the page, you accumulate more colored ribbons until you end up with a rainbow! It is truly amazing to see the rainbow at the end of the book. I read this one everyone year to my library preschool storytime group, so I knew my son would love it too. I ended up buying this book because it a great story, fantastic color teaching tool, and the ribbon rainbow is an awesome concept.
2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. —
This book is a preschool classic for good reasons— it is a lot of fun to read and Eric Carle’s illustrations are great! Learn colors with brown bear as it spies many beautifully colored animals. It’s fun to guess what animal corresponds to the color the bear sees.
3. Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert —
We love Lois Ehlert’s books! They always have great pictures. In this book and child helps mom plant a flower garden in a rainbow of colors. The book shows a great step-by-step guide to the planting process for children. Once the flowers bloom, each color is highlighted in its own spread and the names of the flowers are given.
4. A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni–
A chameleon is sad that he doesn’t have a color of his own. The thing about chameleons is that they change to the color of what ever they touch. So if they are on a green leaf, they turn green and if they are in a yellow flower, they turn yellow. as the chameleon walks along and the seasons change, so does the chameleon. It is feeling very sad about it’s color changing until it meets another chameleon. The new friend promises that they will stick together and even though they will still change colors, at least they will look the same.
5. Red is a Dragon: a book of colors by Roseanne Thong–
This book helps reinforce color recognition by talking about one color per spread. Told in simple, rhyming text, this is a story about a girl who spots the colors of the rainbow everywhere around her. She goes in rainbow color order, pointing out food, clothing, animals, flowers, toys, clouds, and household items. A glossary at the end of the book explains some of the things that preschoolers might not be familiar with to help further discussion with your kiddo. We had to look up one of the fruits that I didn’t know, so I was learning new stuff too!
6. Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff—
Wow. The illustrations are beautiful in this book about a baby and mommy bear. Baby bear wakes in the spring to a beautiful world filled with bright colors. Each spread focuses on a different color as the bear makes its way out of the cave and explores the forest. A rain storm causes the bears to go back to their cave, but when they look out after the storm has passed they see a rainbow!
7. I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin —
This is the first Pete the Cat book in the series. It is a sing-song, rhyming, cute story about a cool cat who steps in lots of stuff as he is walking down the road. He steps in blueberries, strawberries, mud, and finally a bucket of water. Kids will love singing along with Pete about how much he loves his shoes no matter what color or how wet they are!
8. Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh–
Three white mice find three jars of paint. One jar is red, one is yellow, and one is blue. The jars are perfect size for the mice to squeeze into and get covered in paint. Paint splashed out of the jars. When the mice step into the paint puddles, the paint changes colors. This book is a great introduction to mixing colors.
9. Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson —
This is one of my favorite colors books! It does a great job of showing the colors in an easy to recognize way and features one of my favorite storybook characters, Bear. Bear and friends explore the beauty of the forest around them, noting a new color on each spread. This book showcases the beauty of the natural world while teaching color recognition. Take a color walk of your own after reading this and see what colors you have outside!
10. Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd —
In this fun book, Dog, a white dog with one black spot, goes about its day, getting lots of colored spots on its coat. Not only does the reader get to work on color recognition, but also counting as more and more spots appear on Dog! Emma Dodd’s illustrations are cheerful and appealing. Preschoolers will enjoy Dog’s colorful day!
11. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt–
A boy named Duncan opens his crayon box one day to find a note from his crayons saying they quit. Each crayon has a complaint–blue has to color too much sky and water, Pink feels neglected, orange and yellow are fighting over which one is the true color of the sun, gray gets tired from coloring the largest animals, and black wants to do more than outline! You and your kiddo will giggle your way through this book 🙂 After listening the the crayons’ complaints, Duncan uses his imagination to draw a fantastic picture that makes everyone happy!
12. I Love Colors! by Hans Wilhelm —
This story is short, but great. It teaches about mixing the primary colors to make new colors! The cute white dog, named Noodles, in this story uses its tail as a paintbrush. A big mess ensues and soon Noodles is covered in paint and looks like a rainbow. Preschoolers will be just as delighted as Noodle is to discover that we can mix colors and will want to try and mix colors too!
13. Mix It Up! by Herve Tullet–
Wow, this is a super fun and interactive book! The reader is asked to touch the colors and help mix them up on the page by shaking and titling the book. A fantastic way to learn about how to turn the 3 primary colors into new colors, as well how to make colors lighter and darker by mixing in black and white paint.
14. Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni —
This a great friendship story for preschoolers, and a fun way to learn about colors as well. Friends, Little Blue and Little Yellow, hugged each other so much that they turned green. Their families didn’t recognize them! The 2 friends began to cry. One cried blue tears and the other cried yellow tears until they were back to their original colors. The families hugged Little Blue and Little Yellow until everyone turned green!
15. Little Owl’s Colors by Divya Srinivasan —
We love Little Owl stories! The stories are always cute and the we really like the bright, bold pictures. In this book, Little Owl explores the world around it, find all sorts of beautiful colors. Each color is just the right hue to be easily identified. The colors are given several examples. At the end of the story is a beautiful rainbow and Little Owl asks what colors you can name.
We hope you enjoy these colors books as much as we do! Please check your library for these and other great books. I’ve included links to purchase these titles on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
