Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Pinkalicious #2

Purplicious

Rate this book
In this follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Pinkalicious, a young girl remains true to herself and discovers that pink isn't only a pretty color, but also a powerful one.

While everyone knows Pinkalicious’s favorite color is pink, the bullies at her new school don’t agree. All the girls are wearing black, painting in black, and making fun of Pinkalicious for loving pink. “Pink is for babies and stinks!” they tell her. Pinkalicious feels left out until she learns that pink can be a powerful color, and that the most important thing is to be yourself.

Pinkalicious stars in five more picture books—Pinkalicious, Goldilicious, Silverlicious, Emeraldalicious, and Aqualicious—as well as I Can Reads, doodle books, and more.

32 pages, Library Binding

First published October 16, 2007

26 people are currently reading
971 people want to read

About the author

Victoria Kann

215 books225 followers
Victoria Kann is the award-winning illustrator and author of the picture book series featuring the whimsical and effervescent character Pinkalicious. Victoria coauthored and illustrated the first two books, Pinkalicious and Purplicious. In addition, she cowrote Pinkalicious: The Musical and wrote and illustrated the #1 New York Times bestsellers Goldilicious and Silverlicious. Currently she is working on several more books about the adventures and antics of Pinkalicious. You can visit her online at www.thinkpinkalicious.com.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
2,201 (43%)
4 stars
1,407 (27%)
3 stars
1,065 (20%)
2 stars
321 (6%)
1 star
117 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews
Profile Image for H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov.
2,125 reviews821 followers
September 6, 2021
As you may have read in other reviews, this story is about peer pressure. My little girls age 4 and 7 are fans of the Pinkalicious television program and stories. Yet neither one found this story to be a favorite. I believe it was a combination of the harsh language and bullying combined with an uninspiring storyline. 1.5*

Spoiler alert:





Pinkalicious likes pink. She is in art class and painting another pink creation. She is told that pink is passe and everybody is now using black paint. She is made fun of and shunned for not going along with the crowd. Finally she finds somebody else who is not painting with black and they make a happy new color together.
Profile Image for Heather K (dentist in my spare time).
4,108 reviews6,681 followers
September 27, 2014
Reviewed by my 5 year old

*Audiobook edition*

"Pinkalicious was at school and all the girls liked black. I loved the best part when she had a purple cake and when she used a pink crayon with blue crayons and it made purple. And she said 'Pink is powerful.' The other girls really did like black."
1 review
May 29, 2012
Having heard so many of my daughter's friends talking about this book, I picked it up. I was disappointed. I understand that kids will tease one another, and I think showing that kind of teasing in books is an important way to talk to our kids about it. But I want books that help my children understand that teasing isn't ok. It's great that the girl eventually stands up for her own love of pink, but throughout the book, the name-calling is never balanced by a voice explaining that name-calling is hurtful. The premise was a great opportunity to show kids that different preferences make people interesting. Instead, we get a story that simplifies things: girls who like black are mean and hurtful, and girls who like pink will be able to find nice girls--you know, like girls who like purple.
Profile Image for Kristine.
799 reviews132 followers
December 31, 2010
blast! I had a whole review written and my wireless internet dropped and I lost the whole thing, but I feel strongly enough about this book to rewrite it.

Background info: in NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children there is a chapter that cites a study about a decrease of violence in cartoons and an increase in 'social aggression' (i.e. the stuff you see on the movie Mean Girls). "Educational Cartoons" like Arthur regularly have a conflict focusing on social aggression between classmates and friends. In the last two minutes they resolve the conflict hoping the kids see the moral of the story. Problem is the study shows a correlation between an increase in social aggression in media and an increase of the "Mean Girl Syndrome" in elementary school kids.

Why do I care? Because 95% of this book is "cool girls" teasing this girl about liking pink. Now, I'm a feminist so I'm all for girl power books . . . but what does this main character do? Become moody, emotional, depressed, lonely, and ends up caving to peer pressure by trying to give up liking pink. Only when she sees there is another person that likes pink is it ok to like pink again. Huh? What about teaching "I don't care what you think"? That's not a concept beyond a 4yo girl - in fact after reading this book I practice it with mine all the time. I pretend I'm someone who is teasing her or saying mean things and she just has to say, "I don't care." or "Who cares what you think?" I don't mean to raise someone disrespectful but someone who knows whose opinions matter and whose don't -- something that 95% of the human population has yet to grasp and yet is vitally important to healthy, well-adjusted girls!

and THAT is DEFINITELY NOT the moral of the story in this little picture book.

[/end rant:]
Profile Image for Abigail.
7,976 reviews265 followers
February 22, 2019
Our pink-loving heroine finds herself persecuted by the other girls at school in this follow-up to her initial adventure, chronicled in the eponymous Pinkalicious . When her classmates declare that pink is passé (and even putrid) and that black is where it's at, Pinkalicious is thrown into a funk, especially when no one will play with her. Attempting to fit in by abandoning her favorite color, she has vanilla ice cream instead of Pink Passion Fruit Paradise, and even begins to paint a picture using black paint. Then she meets a girl who loves blue, and together they make an amazing new hue: purple!

As with its predecessor, I was singularly unimpressed with Purplicious, finding the artwork flat and uninteresting, the heroine obnoxious, and the story unappealing. Leaving aside the unlikelihood of a scenario in which little goth girls torment pink princesses - is this really a thing? - I was troubled here by the fact that the bullying issue is resolved for the main character through her interaction with another girl, who offers her some reinforcement, when it comes to her love of pink, rather than through any internal realization that tastes vary, that it's perfectly acceptable for some little girls to like black, and others to like pink, and that bullying anyone for their favorite color is both mean-spirited and stupid. I rather regret that I've committed to reading this entire series, as part of a project, as so far I have been less-than-thrilled. There are far better stories out there about bullying, and far-better series about sparkle-loving girls - this one is not recommended.
Profile Image for Rossy.
368 reviews13 followers
June 6, 2016
I don't know how I feel about this book... I didn't like thta the little girl only felt validated about her love for the color pink when she met a girl that loved purple as passionately as she did for pink.
18 reviews2 followers
February 18, 2011
A shameless and pathetic attempt at creating another children's book empire with endless "sequels", a la Fancy Nancy. Pinkalicious was clever and lighthearted, this is insipid....if not malignant.

The main character is teased by her classmates for liking pink for about 10 pages. Her response? Stop liking pink. Until, on the very last page another girl teaches her that "pink is powerful". My kids like this book and I'll read it, but only with a lot of added discussion about the situations involved, making sure they know the words said by the pink-haters are unkind and unacceptable and that Pinkalicious shouldn't put so much stock in what they say. I'm happy to be sending this one back to the library.
Profile Image for miti.
161 reviews2 followers
Read
October 9, 2024
i’ve READ the classics
Profile Image for Julie R.
78 reviews18 followers
May 16, 2010
The best part about this book is doing Valley Girl voices for the angsty schoolmates who tease Pinkilicious (who names their kid that?) about her love of pink.
Profile Image for alyssa.
351 reviews22 followers
November 11, 2022
this was cute! haven't read the original story but reading a book about friendship and pink and purple to a couple of little boys is always a blast and that's how i consumed this so ... nice!
a little short on the actual resolution of it all, but yknow. not the worst and not the best book about bullying
Profile Image for Amy.
788 reviews33 followers
February 11, 2015
I picked up this book because my daughter has liked some of the Pinkalicious series (we have 2: Easter and Goldilicious' tea party), and they are kind of whimsical and silly even if the message isn't awesome. I thought we'd check it out. Very glad I read it first, because I now refuse to read it to her. I'd donate it back to the thrift, but then it will go home with an unsuspecting family.

As other reviewers have said, sometimes "mean girls" in a book are a good thing because they introduce ways/means to talk about unpleasant or unacceptable behavior. But not in this book. There is no resolution, there is no strong girl component, there is no empowerment.

Pinkalicious has the "blues" because the girls at school now like black and are a bit nasty about it. So what does Pinkalicious do? Stand her ground? Make a case for pink? Get new friends? Nope. She tries to like black, fails, then mopes, pouts, takes it out on her brother, and finally follows another (stronger) girl's lead to like purple. LAME

I'll have to read Extra Yarn three times tonight to get rid of the yucky feeling. (Or Rosie Revere, or Journey, or Amelia Earhart, or Miss Rumphius...)
Profile Image for Allison.
333 reviews20 followers
October 1, 2013
I hate to be so harsh...but this book was awful. Though I do believe there is an appropriate audience for concepts like bullying, self-confidence, and rising above the crowd, I don't know that the small children who are drawn to this series ARE that audience. And since Kann decided to introduce these particular conflicts in this story but failed to provide any helpful resolution or guidance for her readers as to how to face these types of problems, I would STRONGLY discourage any other parents of preschool/kindergarten children to try this book. As we read through the name-calling, the dramatic fits, and Pinkalicious's ultimate lack of lesson learned, I felt myself physically cringing, and once we finished Jordan and I spent some time dissecting and determining our own thoughts of what Pinkalicious could have done better. Seriously, this one's terrible.
Profile Image for Kay.
271 reviews17 followers
August 17, 2009
We loved Pinkalicious (especially since my 6 year old is a BIG fan of the color pink), but this story just fell short in my opinion. She seems to spend too much of her time concentrating on the fact that the main character is being teased for her love of art and purple (and in not-so-nice phrases that I'd rather my 6 year old NOT hear yet), and didn't spend enough time developing the ending where she chooses to stick with her favorite color in spite of the mean girls in her class. I had much higher hopes for this one, especially since this is a topic I've really been exploring with my daughter. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh and this would be better suited for a little bit older audience, but for now, we'll leave this one on the library shelf.
258 reviews
March 9, 2017
None of the charm of Pinkalicious (however little that was), wall-to-wall Mean Girls who aren't really refuted, and Pinkalicious calls her brother a "sissy." I mean, I get that she was lashing out, but that is really not a cool word for a kids' book.
31 reviews2 followers
Read
March 15, 2017
Personal Response- My little sister's favorite part of the book is when Pinkalicious paints the picture with her friend. Her least favorite part was when Pinkalicious got vanilla ice cream instead of a pink sundae. When I asked her why she didn't like that part she said, "It's sad because she loves the pink kind, but is eating the white kind. I don't like the white kind either." Overall she really enjoyed the book because it is a part of her favorite series.
Plot- The book starts with Pinkalicious painting a pink picture in art class. Then all the girls in her class start making fun of her because black is "in" and pink is "out". Pinkalicious keeps getting teased by all the kids about how pink is a baby color. She decides that she is going to stop liking the color pink and start liking black things. She tries to find something black to play with, but only finds a black plastic spider. When her family goes to get ice cream everyone else gets pink sundaes, but she gets a vanilla cone. The next day in art class, she meets another girl who finds pink useful. The girl added pink to her painting to turn the frosting purple. In the end the two girls become best friends.
Recommended- I recommend this book to girls because the main character is a female and it is very much so directed towards girls. I think little girls of any age would enjoy this book. The moral of the story was that you shouldn't change yourself to please others, so if you are trying to teach that lesson to a child, I would read this book to them.
Profile Image for Deb.
1,573 reviews20 followers
December 7, 2020
There are more words in these books than most picture books, but Alena had the patience to let me read this to her. There's something about the "__licious" books that makes them surprisingly readable.
Profile Image for Tiffany (The Book Skeptic).
172 reviews10 followers
Read
November 27, 2022
Pinkalicious struggles to appreciate her love of the color pink as everyone in school makes fun of her for it. It isn’t until she meets a classmate who combines blue and pink to make purple that Pinkalicious realizes she shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks about her favorite color. Another reading slump pick. I definitely had more fun with the first book. This wasn’t my cup of tea.
Profile Image for Katie.
323 reviews1 follower
September 5, 2024
When you read a book called Purplicious by an author whose main character is called Pinkalicious and is all about everything pink, you expect purple to be a central theme, right? Nope 🤣 Mention on like last page basically? And unchecked bullying by a group of girls over favorite color. Yeah…
Profile Image for Kristen Dutkiewicz.
Author 9 books13 followers
January 5, 2018
Loved how Pinkalicious found a friend despite all the girls saying "pink is for babies." Great for showing children how to develop their own interests and likes, not following the crowd.
Profile Image for Brenda.
775 reviews10 followers
April 12, 2018
Fun book about holding strong against peer pressure.
Profile Image for Geordie.
548 reviews28 followers
October 13, 2017
Purplicious is a children's book about bullying and how it makes you feel - and it's just about the worst approach to this serious topic that I could imagine.

Pinkalicious, the heroine, is bullied at school for loving pink, while all the cool kids only like black. I don't expect much subtlety in a kid's book, but this is a pretty heavy-handed variation of the straw-man argument. The mean kids at school are ridiculously mean, without reason beyond that being what the story needs - for there to be bad people to make Pinkalicious feel bad.
Pinkalicious goes home to mope, and to count her pink stuff. And does she ever have pink stuff. Everything she owns and wears is bright pink. That's not a preference, that's an obsession. I somewhat hoped the book might try to have the bullies and Pinkalicious learn to expand to liking new things, but nope, having nothing in your life but pink is apparently a-okay.
As time passes Pinkalicious mopes and sulks more. She insults more, and withdraws from things she used to like. And the moral we think is coming, of Pinkalicious figuring out, or her family explaining to her that it's important to like what we like and not listen to bullies NEVER COMES. But we do get a hilarious example of first-world problems when Pinkalicious refrains from getting her beloved pink ice cream, instead getting a vanilla ice cream that's impossible to eat because it's so bland...
Ultimately Pinkalicious does nothing but be unpleasant. Someone else solves her quandary by reaffirming to her that pink is great, which comes out not only unrewarding but also just baffling. Another student shows her that "Pink is powerful!", because mixing pink with blue will make purple...... but, don't you mix red with blue to make purple? And, can't you mix any number of colors together to make other colors - how is pink any more powerful than other colors?

Well, juvenile logic is not unforgivable in a kid's book, but a plot where the heroine is a whiny little brat and nothing is done by her or her family to address bullying is reprehensible. Cutesy-ness is all this book has going for it, and that was not enough for me.
Profile Image for Shauna Ludlow Smith.
814 reviews
April 26, 2021
My little granddaughter loves pink. And purple. What a cute book about not caring what others think about your favorite things.

Cute illustrations too.
30 reviews
October 30, 2018
Personal Response:
I read this book to a little girl that I babysit for and she absolutely loved it. Addison liked how colorful the illustrations in the book were. She also loved how at the end, another girl came in and told her pink was perfect. Addison's favorite part was when Pinkalicious went out for a bike ride and got ice cream with her parents.

Plot Summary:
Purplicious started out with a little girl named Pinkalicious that loves the color pink and everything she owns is pink. All of the other boys and girls at her school start to taunt her for liking the color pink so much, they tell her that the color black is in. Pinkalicious loved the color pink, but soon started to change her mind and hate the color because she had no friends. She went to back to art class after the weekend and met a new girl that loved pink because it was "powerful" and it could change blue to purple.

Characterization:
Pinkalicious started out as an outgoing and smart little girl. When girls from her school started to put her down because she liked the color pink she started to act crabby and lonely. Once she found a new girl in art she went back to her same self- outgoing, smart, and happy.

Recommendations:
I would recommend this book to any young child in the age range from about 4-7. This is a great book to teach kids to never put each other down because everyone has their own opinions and personal preferences.
Profile Image for Eva-Marie Nevarez.
1,701 reviews135 followers
August 9, 2011
This is one of the better Pinkalicious books IMO. I love the real subject it deals with - bullying - and how Pinkalicious deals with it. This story does a good job of showing how easy it is to be a follower. It's obvious who the leader of the bully's is and who are the followers. I loved seeing how Pinkalicious contrasted with them color-wise.
The change of emotions is really realistic also. At first Pinkalicious stands up for herself and is adamant about her choice of favorite color. Then she starts to really feel the loneliness that comes with bullying. After dealing with that she tries to change. She decides to get vanilla ice cream instead of her normal range of pink ice creams.
When Pinkalicious goes back to school she sees a girl she's in art class with painting a picture. The girl is painting a picture of a cake with blue frosting but she's not happy with it and while talking to Pinkalicious she mentions her painting needing pink. Naturally Pinkalicious is surprised at this since everyone hates pink so she stands by while the girl adds pink to her blue and makes...... purple!
I'm not of the opinion that every single kids book needs to have a strong moral lesson - I believe some need to be read just for fun - but when you find one like this which is fun, the lesson easy to grasp, and with great illustrations it's a win-win situation all around!
Profile Image for Nerd-Light-Books.
33 reviews16 followers
August 3, 2011
My daughter LOVES Pinkalicious, so I thought this would be a great one for her too. She's a toddler. I was disappointed though. Pinkalicious is about a slightly mischievious girl who gets into trouble when she eats too many pink cupcakes, it's mostly a celebration of that childhood obsessiveness so many of us can relate too. Purplicious however was not about a girl who loves purple with a passion. Almost the entire book was filled with mean girls saying pink was stupid. Even though the little heroine finds a friend in the end (who likes purple), I felt that the book was too negative. My daughter was not interested in this book. I can understand why. It's just not as fun as Pinkalicious.
Profile Image for Madison LibraryBookFamily.
1,713 reviews2 followers
January 22, 2018
Mean girls at school decide that pink is for babies. Pinkalicious struggles with the teasing. She tries to conform with her peers until she meets a girl who likes purple.

Can I admit that I don’t love this series? Pinkalicious is a brat. She is mean to her family and models a passive approach to being bullied. I wish that this book acknowledged why the girls who liked black were mean and how to respond to it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.