Jeffrey Loves Blue

When a child likes something, they want it, consistently and constantly. How many parents grimace when their young children will only wear certain clothing items, no matter how shabby, or won’t wear others - no matter the price tag. Or their children will only eat certain foods - and woe betide the caregiver who doesn’t separate everything on the plate. The reasons are often intangible - texture, taste - perhaps, but what’s also certain is that it often takes psychological trickery to get these determined kids to try something new.

Jeffrey is one of those kids. His obsession is the colour blue, and he surrounds himself with it - his clothes, his food, his choice of paint in art class. Loretta Garbutt captures how comforted Jeffrey feels about his blue world, and how nervous he is about trying another. Jeffrey’s journey to growing up is typical, humorous and poignant.

Garbutt uses two narrators to tell Jeffrey’s story. The third person narrator describes his preference for blue in standard Times New Roman font while Jeffrey responds in a blue chalk dust-style font. Occasionally, an adult, presumably a parent, nudges him forward with a conversation that portends a future involving other colours:

“Blue is a wonderful colour, Jeffrey.”
Blueberries are my favourite.
“But sometimes you might have to try a different colour. Right?”

My art teacher says that.

The thought of trying another color is a threat to Jeffrey’s feeling of safety. It makes him feel blue. He knows he has to grow up and beyond, but he resists as much as possible. It’s his conscience that pushes him forward when a friend needs some dabs of his favourite colour to paint her own picture. The wise adult in his life reminds him of a previous obsession with the colour red, and he’s off, painting and dressing in red.

Lily Snowden-Fine’s paintings, rendered in thick watercolour brushstrokes, are similarly humorous and poignant - and very blue. Blue-eyed Jeffrey sleeps in striped blue pyjamas, his socks are blue. His blue underwear makes an appearance, too. His sadness over leaving his Blue Period behind is shown with worried eyebrows as he recalls his many blue paintings in his mind’s eye.

When Jeffrey begins using red, every shade is employed. Snowden-Fine shows Jeffrey inside his own painting, creating a red wagon inside which sits an already-painted red chicken.

Children will enjoy Jeffrey Loves Blue as a coming-of-age story, much as Something from Nothing by the late Phoebe Gilman is. Caregivers and teachers can use it as a read-aloud and as a book to talk about feelings and sadness. It can also be used to nudge children to break loose and try something else, as well as part of an art study class when an artist chooses one colour only to see what that restriction will inspire.