A charming story about a creative boy with two moms who causes a little mischief.
Leo loves coloring with his favorite pink marker. But when he has to do so All. Afternoon. because his moms are working in their dusty, gray scrapyard, he soon colors through his entire coloring book. Abuzz with the thrill of coloring outside the lines, he sets off to add some color to the things around him. Soon a rock, the mailbox, their front door, and even their cat, Hambone, are beautiful shades of pink, courtesy of Leo’s marker. The only thing he knows is off limits is Mom’s truck—but the other vehicles in the scrapyard are fair game.
When everything around him is a rosy hue, will his moms be upset? (Spoiler: no—but there are still some surprises in this tale.)
The story is a stated ode to the classic Harold and the Purple Crayon, although the touch of whimsy here—Leo’s color-on-everything marker—is somewhat different from Harold’s draw-and-you-create-it crayon. That’s fine; there’s room in this world for multiple magical drawing implements. Leo’s love of pink is never remarked upon; it simply is, which is both affirming and refreshing.
Author-illustrator Mariyka Foster’s words are beautifully spare but keep the action flowing; her limited-palette drawings emphasize the grays of the scrapyard against which the pink shades of Leo’s marker pop. For both its words and its illustrations, this is a highly recommended book.
Leo has medium-brown skin and darker brown curly hair; Mama has pale skin and dark brown hair; Mom has very pale skin and light brown hair.
