Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky: 02/23/22

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and Daniel Minter (Illustrations) is a forty page picture book that gives a concise history of the color blue. The book touches on five different sources of blue pigment over recorded human history.

Previous books that cover pigments focus primarily on three things: time in history, location, and source of the pigment. It might also include who used said pigment and some famous pieces of art or other well known uses. These books are also usually focused on the European art history narrative.

Blue bucks the trend. Yes, it includes the usual what, where and when but it also takes time to address the human costs. It addresses how labor intensive these pigments can be. It talks frankly about how slavery made indigo such a successful and profitable business to be in.

Daniel Minter's illustrations blend the information of the text into a single visual. The pieces are often monochromatic. If a particular pigment can also be another color, that other color is sometimes used. Primarily, though, the pages are different shades of blue, befitting a book about that hue.

Five stars

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