What Colour Is the Wind

Product Information

The richness of that otherness is what Belgian artist and author Anne Herbauts came to see in a surprising and profound question from a blind child. During a bookmaking workshop she was leading, a little boy asked her whether she, as an artist, could tell him what color the wind was — a notion of the same trans-sensory, synesthetic quality as Helen Keller’s electrifying account of “hearing” Beethoven. A blind child asks what color the wind is. He gets different answers from those he asks. The wolf says the wind is “the dark smell of the forest.” The bees say the wind is “the color of sunshine.” The rain says nothing! But the bees say “the color of sunshine.” At the end the child reaches a giant who says that the wind is the color of all of these things. His songs have been recorded by Foster and Allen ("I Will Love You All My Life"), Roly Daniels ("Part of Me"), and George Hamilton IV ("Heaven Knows"). [1] While this thought-provoking story might go over the heads of some little ones, the offbeat questions, beautiful artwork, and unique multi-sensory approach will be simply enchanting for creative-minded children." — Booklist

What Color is the Wind? is an interactive sensory book for kids with beautiful illustrations and a simple, engaging story. Obviously my 5-year-old daughter likes the book but she’s just one kid. She is not a representative for her species (so to speak). That said, this book just drills home the advantage that physical books have over their electronic counterparts: the sensation of touch. Play with a screen all day if you like, but you will never be able to move your fingers over these raised dots of rain or the rough bark of a tree’s trunk. As children become more immersed in the electronic, they become more enamored of tactile books. The sensation of paper on skin has yet to be replicated by our smooth as silk screens. And this will prove true with kids on the younger end of the scale. I'll agree with Kirkus about the adult designation, though. When I worked for New York Public Library there was a group of special needs adults that would come in that were in need of tactile picture books. We would be asked if we had any on hand that we could hand over to them in some way. There were a few, but our holdings were pretty limited (though I do remember a particularly keen tactile version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar that proved to be a big hit). Those kids would have loved this book, but children of all ages, and all abilities, would feel the same way about it. Kids are never too old for tactile picture books. As such, you could use this book with Kindergartners as well as fifth graders. Little kids will like the fun pictures. Older kids may be inspired by the words as well. The story’s protagonist, whom Herbauts affectionately calls “the little giant,” goes in search of an answer to his synesthetic question. Every piece of nature he encounters gives him a different answer — to the bee, the wind is the warm color of the sun; the old dog, who perceives the world through smell, experiences it as “pink, flowery, pale white”; to the wolf, it smells of the forest; for the mountain, the wind is a bird; for the window, it is the color of time. thinking an Englishman going into Ireland you know and I was there like a day and I realized how stupid that was and yeah i was just playing in little pubs and things but there was a lovely funny story which came out of it i played i went into the palace bar and Athlon which is run by a great friend of ours and their plane was Seamus Shannon a wonderful according accordion player and a great act himself and he says had two famous people have just walked in our own Tony Allen and the marvelous singer-songwriter from Liverpool he said Charlie land straight and of course nobody dared me and nobody knew me and I sat down and they were all saying Charlie who you know they'd all had Tony obviously and this bloke sat next to me we had a lovely conversation and a couple of pints and as he said to me charlie is that right he wrote the songs I said I wrote song he said what did you write and I said they're all part of me I will love you all my life and he said you sure I've never heard of them I said it doesn't matter because I'm not a smallMy oldest grandson, Charlie, is 17. He was surfing in Cornwall all last week and has a surfing type hairstyle. I'm delighted he's taken up the guitar again as he's very talented so hopefully the musical thread will carry on."

There are differences among reviewers as to the age group this book is aimed at. Its format is 'picture book', which tend to be for pre-schoolers, though there are a good number of picture books aimed at slightly older kids (and of course the genre of 'sophisticated picture book' which might even be aimed at adults). One review I read recommended this book for ages 5+, another for ages 9+. Personally, because of its simplicity and because picture books with a tactile component are generally marketed for ages 2 to4, I would place it on a bookshop's shelves in the pre-school area. While 5 and 6 year-olds (and often even older) would enjoy this book, I wouldn't expect them to be the prime market as there is no real narrative. His chart-topping success heralded the end of his teaching career. "I taught about six days after that. They gave me early retirement and off I went on the road," reflects Charlie who went on to release some 27 albums and achieve success across the world with his own brand of ballads, blues, country and spiritual music. Here, look at it, even for 30 seconds and see some of it and see what I mean (and even read a full review from Popova: One Easter Sunday I was playing at a country music club and thought it was an appropriate day to play a gospel music song, and I got an amazing response. Sometimes you are too close to something to be able to appreciate the worth of it. People gave me the belief in those songs long before I had the belief in them myself."A young lad called Paddy sang it in front of the whole school. He had that strength in character which meant kids respected him, rather than sniggered at him. He did a great job, but then I buried the song for a long time.

A newly married Charlie eventually decided it was time to settle down and he went on to qualify as a teacher in 1978, spending his spare time songwriting. He often wrote songs for the children to sing at assembly, including one of his biggest hits My Forever Friend. I've a great band and crew and I couldn't not go on stage without singing What Colour is the Wind and My Forever Friend, together with a few older songs we've resurrected and some covers thrown in. So hopefully people will enjoy it." What is essential is invisible to the eye,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince. Those bereft of vision, therefore, need not be bereft of the essential — they discern it by means other than sight. Following the album's success in Ireland, Landsborough appeared on several TV shows in the UK. Since then, he has released ten additional albums, including originals, greatest hits and double CDs of previous releases. Overall, sales of his albums have exceeded 700,000 units. He also has had two number ones singles in the Irish pop chart, and several of his albums have topped the British country charts. In 1996, he converted to Catholicism. [3]With that, because I'd never been a child in real life, he said, No, dad, you're number two. I was number one the following week and all of Ireland went out and bought that song so I'm eternally grateful to the artist people because if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here what's for the future Charlie well I never looked too far ahead you know you've just celebrated your birthday I have do you dare want to tell us well I'll tell you I'm 69 years of age and I still feel like 69 years you know you look good freshness Velma well, she's delighted because for years while I was playing in the pub, she was shattered in the house mind and the kids in the dog and everything, and as this success arrived late, all the kids had grown, so now we'd yet set round the world, you know, doing One of his most successful releases, Still Can't Say Goodbye was recorded in Nashville in 1999 and resulted in Landsborough winning the BMCA Best Male Vocalist (2000) for the third year in succession, and the Southern Country Award for best album. He has performed at most major concert halls and theatres in the UK, including the London Palladium. He also toured Australia and New Zealand in 2001. [4]

The illustrations are enchanting, worth touching, too, for their textured surfaces. Readers will like the surprise ending where the little boy feels the wind and learns its color." — The Vermont Country Sampler Despite having performed since he was a teenager, his big break didn't happen until he was in his 50s, when after appearances on Pat Kenny on RTE and The Gerry Anderson Show on the BBC, What Colour Is the Wind reached number one in the Irish charts. For 22 years I just played in the pubs and clubs and never said a word. Just to lighten it up I started to tell little stories between the songs. I wasn't really aware of how important that was until a fellow from Derbyshire came to me afterwards and said, 'You were grand tonight lad, but I'm a bit disappointed because you hardly told any stories and that's all I came for'. So it's become an important part of the show. I think it gives people an insight into your character."

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This book is the perfect example of an interactive picture book. Where the text--poetic and anaphoric--is beautiful in its own right, it is the illustrations where we gather further, more in-depth meaning. This book does not mention once that the little giant is blind, but the text asks us to ponder a question that those of us with sight think is an easy question to answer: what color is the wind? We know that the wind does not have a color, not really--but to someone who has a different way of navigating his world, this is not straightforward. We must rely on other senses. When the bees say the wind is the color of sunshine, we can assume that it's artistic in that sunshine also doesn't really have a color, but it also evokes a sense of warmth, the reminder of summer, the ability to relax. The Kirkus review journal said that this book was, “ ‘The blind men and the elephant’ reworked into a Zen koan” and then proceeded to recommend it for 9-11 year-olds and adults. I'm fairly certain I disagree with almost every part of that. Now here’s the funny part. I didn’t read this review before I read the book. I also didn’t read the press release that was sent to me with it. When I read a book I like to be surprised by it in some way. This is usually a good thing, but once in a while I can be a bit dense and miss the bigger picture. As I mentioned before, I completely missed the fact that this book was an answer to a blind child who had asked Anne Herbauts the titular question. I just thought it was cool that the book was so much fun to touch. Embossing, debossing, die-cuts, lamination, and all kinds of surfaces give the book the elements that make it really pop. As I read it in the lunchroom at work, my co-workers would peer over my shoulders to coo at what they saw. All well and good, but would a kid be interested too? Kirkus says they'd have to be at least nine to grasp its subtleties. Other artists had approached me for the song and I remember my wife saying to me 'if you give that song away I will strangle you'. So to avoid strangulation I recorded it myself and that song, together with My Forever Friend, turned the tide for me." With plans to release a new album later this year, Charlie is certainly not contemplating retirement and he's optimistic that the Landsborough name will carry on in musical circles for generations to come. He left school early and worked intermittently as an apprentice telephone engineer, on the railways, and in the flour mills before joining the army. He left after four years, in the early 1960s, and joined a group, The Chicago Sect, in Dortmund, Germany. Returning to England, he married, played in local bands, and worked in a variety of jobs before becoming a teacher [1] at Portland Primary School on Laird street, Birkenhead.