De colores: Bright With Colors

by David Díaz

De colores, "bright with colors," is sung all over the Spanish-speaking world. People joyfully grab hands, sway, and sing the words that celebrate the beauty of spring and the strength of love. Caldecott Medal-winner David Diaz illustrates this bilingual folksong in vibrant color using acrylic, pencil, and colored pencil.

Genres: Picture Books, Spanish Literature, Childrens, Storytime, M M Romance

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Stacy Renee (LazyDayLit) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bilingual picture book about colors!

Read with my 7yo for our Languages elective.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nicely illustrated, bilingual version of the well-known folk song, De Colores.

I remember singing De Colores in grade school & I saw this book at the library so wanted to see how my memory stood up. Not well, it turns out. 😁 I had only retained about five words.

[Goshen PL Childrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read at Cuentos en Español on June 22, 2022
Theme: Colores

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not ask for a more DELIGHTFUL book!--Lyrics to a favorite song in both Spanish and English AND illustrations by a favorite illustrator, David Diaz.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great multicultural book. The book goes through the words of the song De Colores in English and Spanish. (It goes through one version of the song, there are many others.) The illustrations are great, and the words to the song are upbeat and uplifting. At the end of the book, there is a brief history of the song. It also has the sheet music of the song.
I would use this book with ELL students. It would be helpful for them to read the words in both Spanish and English so they could see not only the words, but the sentence structure. If I used this with a whole class, I would talk with them about some of the words.
I would also get the music and have the students sing the song after reading the book. We could also get some instruments and let them play along with the song.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am pretty sure I used this before in story time when I worked at the public library as a children's services library assistant, but I most recently used this while volunteering at the public library in the town where I work as a community college librarian. The library's summer reading theme is "Reading to the Rhythm." I used this bilingual book for a music/singing/instrument story time program, as it is a traditional Spanish-language song that so many Latinos remember from their childhoods, including my own. I read the Spanish version, but this book is truly bilingual as it has an English translation underneath. I re-read it to the kids while singing along to the version sung by José-Luis Orozco, which I pulled up on my phone.

The best part was that a parent requested this book through interlibrary loan after we read and sang!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love David Diaz as an illustrator. This books rocks and is a hit with both parents and children. Goes well with Jose Luis Orozco's CD.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked reading the chorus - it was quite calming. I struggled with the animals sounds.

[SL · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sweet book but it didn't hit a high note with me. It was ok, nothing memorable for me personally. #killjoy

[Karyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

figurative translation, the meaning is slightly changed so that the words match the melody

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept of this book, and the illustrations are fun, but the Spanish to English translation threw me a little. It's not even close to literal, and in a couple of instances what was said in English was completely different than what the Spanish said. I don't know the history behind this folksong so perhaps there is a reason for this...but I feel like for your average bilingual child, this would be super confusing.