Hard facts

A topic on colour clearly offers the opportunity to explore and investigate a wide rage of themes through a variety of high-quality children's picture books. There are so many stories that have colour as a theme, that one need never be lost for inspiration.

The theme also offers an excellent context in which to seek out information, so it is important not only to provide stories for children to browse through and read for themselves, but also to offer a good range of information texts to satisfy curiosity and enhance knowledge and understanding.

Choosing information books for the Foundation Stage can be a difficult process. Many publishers are concerned primarily with readability. Because of this, the sense of awe and wonder in a subject can be lost as authors try to use the simplest vocabulary possible. The quality of information offered can also suffer as a result of efforts to make the printed text accessible to emergent readers. Statements such as 'some flowers have blue petals' (this is taken from an information text aimed at the Foundation Stage) merely reaffirm children's existing knowledge and do little to inspire them to want to know more.

Essential features

So, what should practitioners look for in an information text? Clearly the use of illustration is important. In my experience, young children always enjoy looking at photographs, as they offer an immediate link to the real world, offering a vivid sense of reality that can sometimes be lost in illustration.

The Colours We Eat series by Patricia Whitehouse (Read and Learn, 8.99) uses photography to good effect. The pictures are clear and uncluttered, but at the same time manage to show a wide array of food and drink. Photographs have also been used well in the recipe section and would offer a useful role model for practitioners wishing to make a recipe book for their own setting with the children.

This series also manages to incorporate many of the essential features of a non-fiction book - you will find a contents page, an index and even a glossary, as well as one or two examples of photographs being labelled.

These are all elements that children will need to include in their own information texts at a later stage, and reading books that incorporate elements offer an opportunity to become familiar with how they look - and sound, if such texts are read aloud by a supportive adult.

Existing knowledge

Non-fiction texts also need to build on what children already know and link this existing knowledge to new concepts and understandings.

One book that achieves this admirably is Chidi Only Likes Blue - an African Book of Colours by Ifeoma Onyefulu (Frances Lincoln, 5.99). This book, which, incidentally, is illustrated throughout by beautiful photographs, is told in a narrative style. It begins by describing why Chidi likes blue and continues by exploring the significance of colour throughout the African village where Chidi lives.

Any exploration of colour in the Foundation Stage would undoubtedly entail a discussion about favourite colours and this book would be a wonderful addition to any such discussion, or indeed act as the inspiration for one.

Each double-page spread offers an insight into the way of life in Nigeria, but there are many similarities with life in England - games played outside, clothes worn for special occasions, and colours in nature. Young children would have no difficulty comparing and contrasting their own lives with those of the children in this volume.

It would be an excellent book to use in a read-aloud session, or to use in small groups for discussion. As with the Colours We Eat series, it could easily be the starting point for making a book personal to your setting.

Novelty and surprise

Novelty and surprise will always entice a reader into a book, and First Discovery - Colours by Moonlight Publishing (6.99) uses both to great effect. By means of transparent overlays, this book reveals a secret each time a page is turned.

This device means that colour-mixing can be shown to great effect. There is no doubt that these pages would appear magical to many young children and would make them want to return to the book time and time again.

At the end of the book there are statements that would invite investigation by the children - for example, 'Black is when there are no colours' and 'White is every colour there is mixed together.' Certainly, some children would want to find out if this were true.

Such assertions could lead to some great experiments. It is good for children to learn that they can question and analyse information given. It is the role of the practitioner to give them time and space in which to do this, and to encourage debate around apparently indisputable facts.

Prompting questions

Any good non-fiction book will promote the asking of questions. Some will do this merely by the subject matter offered; it is so interesting that the reader wants to ask questions and find out more. Others will ask questions within the book itself, promoting a response from the reader, and illuminating the subject matter at the same time.

Changing Colour by Joy Richardson (Franklin Watts, 5.99) is one such book. Through a series of double-page spreads, it enhances understanding of the use of colour in a range of paintings, from Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'

through to the abstract work of the artist Wassily Kandinsky.

The questions asked are for the most part reasonably open-ended and invite children (and adults!) to look closely at the paintings chosen. There is also the opportunity to enrich young children's descriptive vocabulary, as the author does not patronise the younger reader, using arresting verbs such as 'dapple', 'shimmer' and 'quiver'. Her phraseology also invites discussion; examples include 'Reflections hang between lily pads' and 'Thousands of strokes of colour fill this picture like a mosaic'. Young children need to have such language read out loud to them, if they are ever going to use similar vocabulary in their speech and ultimately in their writing.

Thoughtful practitioners will spend time with young children pondering over such use of language, and talking about the paintings described in the book. Many of the paintings used could be obtained as postcards or posters.

Postcards could be displayed on an interactive whiteboard to enhance discussion. If such a facility is not available then they could be copied on to acetate and projected onto a blank wall, or sheets of white paper, using an overhead projector.

Changing Colour also suggests avenues of further exploration. It does this in two ways. The first is quite explicit - there are suggestions for activities at the back of the book. The second is implicit, but equally as powerful. The author makes the paintings so fascinating that you can't help but want to look at others in the same way. All information books should spark this kind of desire to find out more. Choosing the best non-fiction books for your setting can help ensure the success of any topic, by offering avenues for children to explore for themselves.