What Color Am I Today?

by Tim Kervahn

What Color Am I Today? is a book that reminds us that color, in all its forms, beautifies the world around us, and hopefully the children who read this book to see the world in a more colorful way.

Genres: Childrens

28 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2024

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for a review. I enjoyed the rhyming structure and colorful pictures! This was a nice opening to talk about feelings and what feelings colors make us think of. There were some typos that can hopefully be fixed!

My 5 year old said “Aww I loved this one! 5 stars. My favorite part was when we realized that pale green and dark dark purple make me feel jealous.”

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

This is a wonderful book that teaches children about their emotions. It goes through the different colors we associate with them, like green with envy. The illustrations are absolutely are amazing. I would definitely recommend this book!

[Taleah Ushendibaba · Rating 3 out of 5]

So i really liked the rhyming and the book was really easy to read. I wish the pictures went more with the book though. I felt like they were just broad peoples of people and would not engage kids.

[Carlina Kinch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to say thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me and my children the privilege of being able to share this book, I really appreciate it.

This was a very cute book, my kids loved the pictures, which I loved too because they had so much thought put into them. From the details related to the passages to the colour reference usage they were beautiful. The problem was, even my kids felt it too, was that this book is confusing it also suffers from at least two missing word errors. This book is suppose to be colours representing emotions but it doesn't deliver on that. The emotions aren't expressed in a simpler way for kids to understand, they could if we're words like jealousy instead of envy which a very young child isn't going to get. But than the colours morph into being used for bodily descriptors like height and skin tone and that's where it falls off for me and my kids. Which I really love that the author wanted everyone to embrace themselves but this is suppose to be a book about kids identifying their emotions inside themselves not through the actual colours on the outsides or their differences to others.

If these things could be adjusted I know this would be a truly fantastic book and support system for kids.

Thank you very from the bottom of our hearts, we really appreciated getting to snuggle together and read this book.

[Sheila The Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Color Am I Today? by Tim Kervahn is a delightful and engaging picture book that introduces young children to the connection between colors and emotions. Through its playful rhyming text and vibrant illustrations, this story captures the attention of toddlers and preschoolers while helping them learn both color recognition and emotional awareness. It gently encourages children to notice and name their feelings, showing that all emotions are valid and part of who they are.

The book includes some welcome moments of diverse representation, which I appreciated, though I found myself wishing it had gone a bit further in acknowledging the beautiful range of skin tones we see in the world. Still, this is a lovely starting point for early conversations about feelings, identity, and self-expression—perfect for parents, educators, and caregivers looking to build emotional intelligence in young readers.

[Sasha Tiamar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didnt even know that you could express so much emotions with colours

"What Color Am I Today?" started out so awesome! The illustrations are just gorgeous, and I loved how it used rhymes to connect colors with feelings. It was a super cool way to talk about emotions. I was totally hooked at the beginning.

But then, it took a bit of a weird turn. When it started talking about God and skin color, it kind of pulled me out of the moment. It felt a little out of place with the rest of the book's message, and honestly, it made me a bit uncomfortable?.

Still, I have to give props to the art. The illustrations are truly beautiful, and the whole idea of using colors to express feelings is brilliant. .

⭐ Story: 5/10 | ⭐ Illustrations: 10/10 | ⭐ Overall: 7.5/10

📆 Reading date: 07/08/25
📖 Read on: NetGalley ARC
💖 Thanks to NetGalley and KP PUBLISHING COMPANY for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Reading Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

So creative and fun. Our little ones sometimes struggle with understanding feelings and emotions. We follow a young man as he goes through his day. He discovers the color of emotions. His Dad is sad and blue and his grandpa is feeling old and gray. Every color of our rainbow can be a way to describe a feeling. We also learn that we are what God made us to be, and wonderfully so. Such powerful messages given in a truly delightful way. I love the flow of the story. We can see the emotions in the colorful illustrations.
As a Mom I love the message of the story. It is hard to find the right ways sometimes to share these thoughts. Especially for my son who is 5 and on the autism spectrum. The author created a calm and wondrous way to share the message and to be encouraging at the same time. I highly recommend this to all families with little ones.
Enjoy with your family and discover more colors together.

[Ollie Skyba · Rating 3 out of 5]

This quick, rhyming read explores the connection between colors and emotions in a playful way. I appreciated the effort to help kids name their feelings, such an important topic for early emotional development.

That said, I paused at the reference to “God” creating the boy’s skin color. While the intention may have been positive, phrasing it differently (perhaps mentioning nature or individuality) might have kept the focus on emotions without unintentionally narrowing the book’s inclusivity.
It would’ve worked better as a story purely about feelings, rather than including physical descriptions that might distance some readers.

Thanks NetGalley for ARC.

[Lila Danisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light but educational in terms of teaching little ones to use colors to describe their feelings.
My 4-year-old son already used red, blue, and white when he described his feelings. At first, he just followed what I said then he eventually understood the meaning behind using those colors. His favorite was of course red because I aka his ibu (mom in Bahasa Indonesia) always had a bright red face when she was angry 😅
This book made him understand more about other colors to describe his feelings and we had a great reading experience. The illustrations were good and my son loved them too.

Thank you to Tim Kervahn, KP PUBLISHING COMPANY, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an age such as this, a book about the deeper meaning of the color you feel is necessary. What Color Am I Today? by Tim Kervahn gave a nod of approval to kids to assign a color to how they’re feeling in a specific moment in time. The vibrant colors on the pages helped to pull the reader in a bit more. As I read this cute book, I was feeling a bit gray, however it was brightened a smidgen thanks to knowing we can live in color and it is okay.

[stephanie 💌 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the rhyming format!

On top of having beautiful illustrations, this book helps young readers identify and get in touch with their emotions and feelings through colors, which I think is a great way for kids to learn emotional intelligence.

The second half of the book also touches on diversity (height, skin color, etc.), identity and self-love in a way that’s understandable and age-appropriate for kids.

[Nikita Perri]

I love reading children's books because they are simple but always hold a strong message or aim to teach something and this one did that!
this book showed the connection between colours and emotions and it is a quick read with fun rhymes; however, I do think at times the way things are written could be confusing to children and the lack of explanation of the emotions might not help either.
the artwork though, stunning!!

[Little Bitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Color Am I Today is about a boy who sees the colors in the world around him, more specifically colors that go along with various emotions. Despite the title, many of the emotion-color links are of other people. It's written in rhyme and would be easy to follow for younger readers. The illustrations are very cute.

Thanks to KP PUBLISHING COMPANY and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

[Delia Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is short and sweet. It goes through colors as emotions. The boy is trying to figure out what color he is. This is a good starter book to show colors and emotions. I think it could have been more details even for a kid’s book. Thanks Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

[Brigid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and fun rhymes. While the message is inclusive (beauty in every color), the narrator explicitly describes a white child (a boy) and uses Christian language. (Referencing "God'). I'm disappointed this is not inclusive to families and kids of color. As a result, I don't think I would pick this up to read this to my children.

[Bernie Groves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the premise of using colours to help children explore emotions and the start and end were great for that. But I didn’t care for the reference to god.
I also wished that the illustrations matched the text more closely, as in the pictures everyone is happy whereas the text is discussing emotions such as envy and anger etc.

[Devany Irvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC on this book and wanted to leave a review. I found the book to be very cute and liked the illustrations. On page 11 it says “that her face was got red when I was bad,” I’m not certain if that was purposeful but it just sounds odd to me. Ultimately, it’s a good book to read to little ones who are learning metaphors.

[Danielle Mccoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this eBook from netGalley for a honest review.

I'm not sure exactly where this book wants to go-colors based on emotions, colors based on skin tone, colors based on nature? It could be any or all of these. I think a little more editing would be helpful but it is a cute picture book.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hope I'm not reviewing the real thing, but as it was downloaded a year and a half after it came out, it seems I am. And what that is is so badly written, and so lumpenly formed into verse, that some of it isn't even in actual, grammatical English. The back cover wasn't even spellchecked. Not the kind of thing young readers should be subjected to. A rare one star.

[Marah | Gracefully Distracted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Mr. Kervahn's team for allowing me an ARC copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I read this with my 5 and 6 year olds. This is a must-read for conversation around self-regulation and emotional control. My girls loved the story and the illustrations were beautiful

[Katie Wolfgram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and KP Publishing Company for the arc of this one. This was a cute concept of discussing emotions and colors with children. I don’t feel like the pictures matched the emotions and description.

[Robin Pelletier · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun and colorful story! I loved all the color symbolism used and how it could spark conversation with littles. The colors were vibrant and the illustrations were delightful. This could be a great book for ES to start talking about the deeper meaning of colors.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

'I look out my window and I can see all the colors of the world around me.'

Such a cute little book about understanding emotions and how everyone experiences them differently. Definitely adding to my Amazon wishlist for the classroom.

[Diane Rembert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book teaches children about the different shades of color that their face can turn, based on emotions and feelings. I believe the young people in your life would appreciate it.