One

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart

Book Author: Kathryn Otoshi

An engaging story for very young children based on colors and numbers about “blue, a quiet color,” who gets bullied by “hot head red.” The other colors feel sorry for blue, but never stand up to red. Then “One” comes along. He — would have been nice to have some more female characters — tells the other colors that they count and encourages them to take a stand. They do, introducing readers to not just the power of “one” as the book’s title suggests, but more importantly to the strength of numbers and collective action.

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One by Kathryn Otoshi
Published by KO Kids Books on 2008
Genres: Early Childhood Anti-Bias
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Early Childhood
ISBN: 9780972394642
Review Source: Rethinking Schools
Buy at Powell's Books
Also by this author: One

Blue is a quiet color. Red's a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don't like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand — until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. As budding young readers learn about numbers, counting, and primary and secondary colors, they also learn about accepting each other's differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.