Jeanne Heifetz has written this book for juvenile readers but readers of any age will enjoy it. She begins by explaining color, both in light and in pigment. Her opening sentence states the premise of the book: “Scientists estimate that the human eye can distinguish 7,295,00 shades of color.” The rest of the book is divided into chapters by letters of the alphabet. Each chapter begins with a longer essay on one of the color names, including English etymology, mythology, history and other interesting facts. The rest of the chapter includes shorter paragraphs on the color names. In order to let the reader know what color is being discussed, Heifetz includes a plate of color swatches numbered to the text in the back of the book.

Since I am a stitcher, seeing color in shades of DMC floss, I was interested in how color names came to be and also if the color I associate with a name is the same for everyone. Not so. There were clear matches where my color sense and Heifetz’s matched. However, there were some notable exceptions. Maize in the book is decidedly orange, not yellow-orange as I picture it; honeydew to me is pale green, not cantaloupe orange as Heifetz describes; and others. A minor annoyance was the constant flipping from the page being read to others where the same topic was discussed.

The strengths of this book are in the charming stories attached to color. How Isabella color came to be is one of most interesting; the paragraphs on electric blue and peacock include a lot of scientific information. The author also provides a bibliographical essay where you can read further on many of the subjects in the book. Most interesting were her comments on the Oxford English Dictionary where she found the information on words with Semitic roots to be lacking. She provides alternative sources for these words.

This book has value for anyone who works with color, either as an enjoyable read or for a reference for naming colors. And yes, there is a reason to the title. The roots for the word blue mean “to shine, flash, burn” and the word is also related to the Latin “blond, yellow.” ( )