Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color Reviews
Booklist
“Poulin offers readers a nice opportunity to reflect on identity and difference while exploring other sentiments, such as jealousy, rejection, sadness, empathy, and building confidence. The jungle settings are gracefully depicted in Drouot’s jaunty, cartoonish figures and a grayscale palette that enables pink to stand out strikingly. Pair with Pete Oswald’s Mingo the Flamingo (2017) or Jacqueline Woodson’s The Day You Begin (2018).”
—Vivian Alvarez (February 7, 2020)
Quill & Quire
“In this heartwarming story, award-winning author Andrée Poulin (The Biggest Poutine in the World) uses Ludo’s incredible tenderness to remind young readers how important it is to be kind, while also showing how tumultuous a child’s journey to self-confidence can be – especially when their peers see only flaws. And Poulin seems to relish the opportunity to debunk the stereotype that ‘pink is for babies and princesses’…
By making Filippo the only splash of colour in the book’s black-and-white setting, illustrator Lucile Danis Drouot masterfully sets the tone for the flamingo’s loneliness. But as his confidence blossoms, so does Drouot’s use of pink. Eventually, the storybook world is just as rosy as he is.”
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Foreword Reviews
“This story illustrated in shades of grey with bold pink accents, the dispirited bird hears insightful words from his family; with the friendship of a fun-loving lemur, he learns that the world is a much better place because of its beautiful variety of colorations, but especially pink.”
—Pallas Gates Mccorquodale (March / April 2020)
Read the full review in the March/April 2020 issue of Foreword Reviews
San Francisco Book Review
“Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color is a heartwarming tale…This book about acceptance, feelings, and friendship is a wonderful addition to any childrens’ library.”
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CM Magazine
“Good children’s picture books do not lecture. Big ideas are embedded in interesting, cheerful, easy-to-read-and-understand stories. Through a simple story, Andrée Poulin, the award-winning author of more than thirty books for children, reveals to young children the importance of accepting yourself even when you feel different as well as the value of true friendship which empowers you to see the beauty of the world. Readers’ hearts sink and rise with Filippo’s experience and emotions. Like the title indicates, readers will feel tickled pink reading to the end….
The story can be interpreted in several ways, depending on the readers. Maybe you come from a minority group and sometimes struggle with identity and belonging; maybe you are an introvert who tries very hard to put yourself out there and socialize with peers; maybe you have different interests than others around you and feel out of place every now and then. Anyone who has the feeling of ‘not fitting in’, whether constantly or occasionally, will see themselves in Filippo.
Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World With Color, a heartwarming and delightful read on a serious topic, is beautifully illustrated and well-written in delivering a positive message to young children. It would make an excellent addition to libraries, schools and family collections.
Highly Recommended.”
—Emma Chen is a Family Literacy Coordinator in a local non-profit literacy organization in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
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Midwest Book Review
“Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color is a delightfully crafted picture book for children ages 4-7 and will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for young readers.”
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Winnipeg Free Press
“In Andrée Poulin’s Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color (Pajama Press, $24, hardcover) Zak and Poncho tell Filippo that pink doesn’t mix with black and white. Pink is for crying babies, and fussy princesses, they say….Lucille Danis Drouot from Montreal has supplied the lively and colorful illustrations to produce an amusing and thoughtful picture book.”
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CanLit for LittleCanadians
“I’m tickled pink by any book that supports diversity and acceptance of differences as the norm so I’m especially thrilled about a picture book that supports this message in as subtle and eloquent a way, as well as playful, as Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color….
The story in Tickled Pink is far from black and white. It goes beyond a story of excluding those who are different. It demonstrates how much we all want to be included….I’m glad Andrée Poulin gave Filippo a quiet and insightful friend in Ludo who proves that it’s not the black-and-white animals that lack understanding, but just one zebra and one panda. (Okay, there may be others out there, there always are, but it’s clear that it’s not all black-and-white animals.) For intolerance to be eliminated, everyone needed to see beyond the colours.
Artist Lucile Danis Drouot keeps her palette, until the very end, black, white, gray and pinks to emphasize the separation that Zak and Poncho highlight but she adds a playfulness in her animals’ activities–vine-climbing, soccer, volleyball, and badminton–that embeds the message in gentleness and whimsy. A final spread resplendent in pinks brightens the world in happiness and friendship.”
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Youth Services Book Review
“What did you like about the book? …The illustrations perfectly complement the story as the bright pink flamingos stand out against the monochromatic setting and characters….This is a sweet French import about being one’s self and making friends….
To whom would you recommend this book? This would be a good choice for storytimes about friendship.”
—Catherine Coyne, Mansfield Public Library, Mansfield, MA
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Canadian Bookworm
“This picture book is a good introduction to issues around race and prejudice for young children….I really liked the illustrations and how the use of the black and white with the bright pink was used.”
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