It's Me, Marva!: A Story about Color & Optical Illusions

Ostensibly a story about color and optical illusion. What's odd about this fairly peculiar little picture book is that I found myself enjoying the plot and pictures far more than the actual illusions themselves. The storyline is as follows: Marva is your typical inventor. One day she finds herself an accidental redhead (thanks to a ketchup based explosion) and then, in turn, an orangehead. As Marva tries to change the color of her hair, she also finds herself having problems doing her laundry. Colors mix and switch and soon poor Marva is changing the color of everything she owns. Along the way kids learn about various color based optical illusions and what colors will change shades when mixed with other primaries. In the end, Marva finds love in the handsome laundrette owner Hari Panjabi.I'm having a hard time conveying what it is I liked about this book. Apart from the fact that I LOVE that this book had a character named Hari Panjabi (quick: name three picture books that contain romantic Indian characters..... GO!) I also enjoyed the illustrations. Marva's a hoot. She's a short haired artistic type, prone to all black outfits and wild purple hair. Admittedly after seeing the cover of the book I had a bit of a shock when I found out that Marva was a girl (she's definitely a little boyish sometimes) but on the whole she's great. The illustrations work well when they're explaining color combinations. I had some difficulty making the occasional illusion work. Try as I might I just could not get green spots to appear on Marva's face. But most work just fine and help the story along. If you want something lively and a touch bizarre, this is a good choice. I can pretty much guarantee that you've not seen anything like this ever before (and will probably never see again, I'd wager).

Marva, that absent minded inventor, may not have been able to create the Ketch-o-matic, but she's making a lot of interesting discoveries where colors and illusions are concerned. When ketchup splatters all over her yellow hair, she finds her hair has now turned orange (yellow + red = orange). And when she washes her new blue jeans with a yellow scarf and red shirt, she finds herself now owning a green scarf and purple shirt (blue + red = purple, blue + yellow = green). Why does her new blue vase look purple next to a red wall and why does her body in the red and blue dress all but disappear in a purple chair.....? The answer to these and many more colorful questions are found in the very creative and innovative pages of It's Me, Marva. Marjorie Priceman has taken some of the mystery out of color and optical illusions in this very clever, humorous and entertaining picture book. Her simple explanatory story line and marvelous cut paper collages demonstrate a wealth of optical and color revelations that are both fun and informative and youngsters will be amazed and entranced by Marva's discoveries. With an afterword explaining color mixing, optical mixing, vibration or motion, color change and afterimage in more detail, this is a simple and wonderful introduction to color theory and optical illusion. Perfect for children 5-9, It's Me Marva is a winner!