Portland Public Library

Blue, a history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky, by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond ; illustrated by Daniel Minter

eng

Includes bibliographical references

illustrations

no index present

Ages: 4-8Grades: PreS-3

non fiction

Blue

bibliography

1295998530

by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond ; illustrated by Daniel Minter

a history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky

This picture book follows one color's journey throughout history -- from ancient Afghan painters to 1905, when a chemical blue dye was created -- and around the world, as it becomes the blue we know today"For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after materials in the world. Ancient Afghan painters ground mass quantities of sapphire rocks to use for their paints, while snails were harvested in Eurasia for the tiny amounts of blue that their bodies would release. And then there was indigo, which was so valuable that American plantations grew it as a cash crop on the backs of African slaves. It wasn't until 1905, when Adolf von Baeyer created a chemical blue dye, that blue could be used for anything and everything--most notably that uniform of workers everywhere, blue jeans"--Amazon

primary