can't for the life of me remember the title of this slim volume with
wonderfully whimsical illustrations . . .

something about a magician who put the color in the world, first he
tries yellow, and everything is yellow, then he tries blue. 
Everything turns blue and all the people in the world get 'the blues'.
 Then he tries red and everyone gets angry.  Finally he figures out
that the world needs all the colors to be perfectly balanced, etc

help anyone?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 23 Jul 2006 13:38 PDT

Howdy, TS.

I'm fairly certain that you're remembering "The Great Blueness."

"A wizard color by color retints the black and white world by
inventing a paint that makes everything that shade. Too much of a good
thing it affects mood and creates conflict(red) , sadness (blue) so
on... the 'people' for whom the wizard works in the story demand the
color changes, get their fill, demand yet another color. Rather like
humanity discovering, gorging, purging...at some point an accident
resolves the story and I hope you'll forgive me for this...all color
is spread around and harmony is found in the mix."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064433161

"The great blueness and other predicaments by Arnold Lobel. 
 New York: Harper & Row, 1968. 
When a wizard discovered that each color he invented for the colorless
world had a different emotional effect on people, he luckily had an
accident which resulted in red apples, green leaves, and yellow
bananas."

http://www.geocities.com/mystorytime/colors.htm


Is this your book?

---

Clarification of Question by timespacette-ga on 23 Jul 2006 18:17 PDT

yes, that's the one!

please post!


* * *

I'm always tickled pink to be able to help people identify books!

Your book is "The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments," by Arnold Lobel.

"A wizard color by color retints the black and white world by
inventing a paint that makes everything that shade. Too much of a good
thing it affects mood and creates conflict(red) , sadness (blue) so
on... the 'people' for whom the wizard works in the story demand the
color changes, get their fill, demand yet another color. Rather like
humanity discovering, gorging, purging...at some point an accident
resolves the story and I hope you'll forgive me for this...all color
is spread around and harmony is found in the mix."

Amazon: The Great Blueness
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064433161

"The great blueness and other predicaments by Arnold Lobel. 
 New York: Harper & Row, 1968. 
When a wizard discovered that each color he invented for the colorless
world had a different emotional effect on people, he luckily had an
accident which resulted in red apples, green leaves, and yellow
bananas."

Colors Storytime
http://www.geocities.com/mystorytime/colors.htm

If you're looking for a used copy, this may help:

AddAll Rare, Used and Out of Print Book Search
http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/RefineRare.fcgi?id=060724104724782229 

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: wizard "the great blueness"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wizard+%22the+great+blueness%22

Best,
Pink

merci bien

Yep, that's it! We have that book--it IS a fun one! :)

Regards,
Boquinha-ga