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Author: Deborah Eve Alastra
Translator: Jose Luis Cortes
Publisher: Zebra Ginkgo Group 
ISBN: 978-0-9891510-3-0

“If I step on RED with my BLUE foot, I wonder what color my foot will be?” the tortoise asks in Deborah Eve Alastra’s children’s book, Senor Tortuga the Color Mixer.
                
At forty-eight pages, this oversized hardbound targets children ages three to seven years old. With no profanity or scary scenes, it is a story about colors and how they are mixed together. Using some two- to three- syllable words, it would best be read out loud to beginner readers. With English writing usually on the top of the page, the Spanish translation is on the bottom. Several punctuation errors may teach incorrect writing skills. The illustrations are simplistic but follow the storyline.

In this tale, Senor Tortuga and Mr. Sissssss are best friends, walking through a desert. The tortoise and snake travel slowly until Senor Tortuga steps on a red cactus fruit, making his foot red. Later, he steps on a yellow fruit, turning the foot orange.

As the story continues, the tortoise steps on different colored fruit, changing the colors of his feet. He learns that mixing primary colors produce secondary colors. In the end, the friends paint a picture on a rock, using many mixed colors.

The ending includes a Spanish to English vocabulary list, word matching game, two-word search puzzles with answer keys, maze, and four black and white pictures to color.

This is a clever way to teach color theory to young children by showing how mixing colors result in different results. I like how the book contains both English and Spanish as well as activities.

Some may think the Spanish translation distracts from the book. Others may be concerned regarding the punctuation and capitalization inconsistencies.

Painting for over thirty-five years, Alastra is a children’s book illustrator and designer. Living in Oregon, she has written two children’s books. Cortes is a writer and professional translator who has a blog and lives in Canada.

I wish the book was professionally edited as the rating would be higher.

If you want to teach the concept of colors to your child, this story is a good way to start.

Thanks to Bookpleasures and the author for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reader’s honest opinion.