Episode 28: What is your favorite color? -with Lita Judge

Welcome to episode 28: What is your favorite color? with author Lita Judge!

TRANSCRIPTS:

Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books including the middle grade novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and the picture book, A Big Mooncake For Little Star. Today, I'm here with Lita Judge, the author and illustrator of Flight School, Red Sled, and Homes In The Wild.

Grace Lin: Hi, Lita.

 Lita Judge: Hi.

Grace Lin: Okay. Are you ready for today's question?

 Lita Judge: Absolutely.

Grace Lin: All right. Today's question is from a young person named Terry. They ask ...

Speaker 3: What is your favorite color and why?

Grace Lin: What is your favorite color and why?

 Lita Judge: Oh, I love this question. A lot of kids think that red is my favorite color because I have the Red Sled and Red Hat and I often use red in my books, but my favorite color is yellow because colors impart a mood. You know, if we think about going outside on a dark and dreary day, the sky is gray and it kind of puts us in a bad mood sometimes or maybe a quiet, contemplated mood. But if you go out on a bright and sunny day, it's hard to be in a bad mood.

 Lita Judge: And when I'm painting, the mood of a color will kind of absorb into myself. So if I'm painting a painting that has a lot of grays or blues, I'm often very quiet that day. But yellow is my favorite color because if I'm painting a painting with yellows in it, it's bright and it's cheerful and it's hard to have a bad day. And so over the years I have found that it's my favorite color. I love to spend the most time in that. I buy a lot of different shades of yellow, and my palette is probably a third yellow because I love to explore in that color range so much.

Grace Lin: Actually a lot of readers think my favorite color is red too because a lot of my books have a lot of red. You'll see it, like it's the background of Dim Sum for Everyone and Bringing in the New Year. But the reason why I use a lot of red is because it's such an important Chinese color. It's the color of good luck, it's the color that gets rid of bad spirits in Chinese culture. So I do like red, but it's not my favorite color.

Grace Lin: My favorite color is actually raspberry pink. It's a very specific shade of pink, not a light shade of pink, but a very strong, vibrant shade of pink. I think it's my favorite color for the similar reasons that yellow is yours. I think I like how much energy it gives me, it makes me feel happy. And I think that pink is soothing in a way too. So it's also very energetic as well as soothing. So that's why I really like it. Though I don't use it as much in my work as I'd like.

 Lita Judge: Maybe you should plan a book around that color so that you can just immerse yourself in that wonderful color.

Grace Lin: I know, and maybe you should do a whole book on the color yellow.

 Lita Judge: Actually, my book Flight School, I painted the whole book with sky. There's a lot of sky and water in that book and so I painted the whole book with a blue sky and a blue sea, as you would think. And then I realized the character in that story is really exuberant, he's really cheerful, he really feels empowered. He's a little penguin that dreams of flying. But of course penguins can't fly. But he believes in himself so much that he seeks other birds that help him and he gets off from the ground and I realized this book has to be yellow and there's no reason the sky can't be yellow and the sea can't be yellow.

 Lita Judge: And so I've actually, I've learned to not paint necessarily what you think. Like a tree is green, the sky is blue. Instead I think of the mood that I'm trying to convey.

Grace Lin: Oh, that's so interesting. I think sometimes I think more about the symbolism of the color more than the actual ... What things actually look like. Like for example, when I was saying the red, I use a lot of red because of what it symbolizes and I'll use green, Jade green because of what it symbolizes in the Chinese culture, especially when I'm doing a book about Chinese culture obviously. So it's so interesting how there's so many different things that we think about when we choose our colors and maybe not exactly what you Terry might've thought we did. So thanks so much Terry for your great question. It was really fun to answer it. Thank you.

Grace Lin: Okay, this is for the thank you for like Lita Judge, Barbara O'Connor. I'll post it. I'll put it in that master list.

Grace Lin: Wasn't that great? If you would like to learn more about today's author, please go to our website kidsaskauthors.com for more information. Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always bookstore and Ms. Carlton's second grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.

Grace Lin: Grownups, remember, if you know a kid that has a question, a book review, a very short story, a poem, or even a joke they would like to share on this podcast, please submit it to kidsaskauthors.com. Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, please spread the word. Tell your friends and colleagues to listen and of course please leave a review on iTunes. That really helps me know that you like what we're doing so we can keep doing it.

Today’s joke comes from a girl also named Grace!:

What did the science book say to the math book?

What?

Wow, you've got problems.

Thank you Grace!

More about today’s authors:

Lita Judge is the author and illustrator of several award-winning picture books for young readers, including How Big Were Dinosaurs?, Bird Talk, Born in the Wild, Flight School, and Red Sled. After a summer spent reading the handwritten journals of Mary Shelley, Lita embarked on a five year journey to tell the story of this courageous teenager in Mary’s Monster. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire, with her husband, two cats and a parrot.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook,  instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.