“Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see . . . ” ~ Irving Berlin

Blue likes me. It’s always been there, coloring my life with good things since childhood: my first Schwinn bike, Island of the Blue Dolphins, fountain pen Quink, favorite pearl bracelet, the sparkling azure of the Aegean one summer.

At age 9, I saw Elvis filming “Blue Hawaii” alongside the pineapple fields. He was driving a baby blue convertible. The first time I met Len in London he was wearing a navy blue sweater. These days, I sip Darjeeling in a Blue Calico teacup, delighted to spot the first bluebird every spring.

Blue just knows how to make an impression. From the cozy comfort of broken-in jeans to the bright optimism of a clear autumn sky, blue touches us all in ways ordinary and profound.

But now I must confess something. Until I read BLUE: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and Daniel Minter (Knopf BFYR, 2022), I knew very little about blue’s fascinating history, origins, and cultural significance. Imagine my surprise when this book magically appeared in my mailbox one day — simply out of the blue (thanks for the gift, Miss T.)! 🙂

Brew-Hammond begins her captivating narrative by citing how elusive and mysterious blue actually is. It’s “all around us,” in the sky and sea. Yet we can’t touch the sky and when we try to cup the sea, its blueness disappears. We may crush iris petals for a brilliant shade of blue, but when we add water, the color fades away.

But then blue appears in the strangest places, discovered throughout history in unexpected ways.

Blue rocks called lapis lazuli were mined as early as 4500 BC in Afghanistan. The ancient Egyptians used the stones to make jewelry and charms to ward off evil, and by 44 BC they (including Queen Cleopatra VII) applied a bluish mixture around their eyes made from ground lapis lazuli grains, plants and animal fat.

In another 600 years or so, artists began painting sculptures, walls, and canvases with blue made from the crushed rocks. Since this paint was expensive to produce, only the wealthy could afford it. This high-demand luxury prompted scientists, merchants, and dyers to search for more sources of blue.

Dyers eventually found blue in the belly of certain shellfish “on the shores of the Mediterranean, Central America, Mexico, and Japan.” (According to a Phoenician myth, a dog ate a snail which turned its tongue purplish-blue.)

Various methods were applied to release the color: pressing the snail’s foot, cracking its shell. But this snail-blue was hard to produce in viable quantities as each snail only released one or two drops.

Since blue was coveted and hard to create, it’s easy to see why people around the world considered the color holy, “a gift that connects God to humans.” In Italy, blue was reserved for painting the robes of Mary, mother of Jesus. Blue drapes hung in King Solomon’s temple, and “many Jews still wear blue-dyed threads called tekhelet.”

Though snail-blue was the most popular color for many years, all along in parts of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas there was another way to “find blue in nature”: the indigo plant. Blue dyes were either made by soaking the plants’ leaves in water (India), or crushing and drying them (West Africa). When adding ashes or urine, the dye dissolved in water, enabling it to bind to fabric.

Indigo dye became the “best of the blues” — it was much cheaper to produce than using rocks or snails, and its shade was just as vibrant and long-lasting. “India and Nigeria became powerful centers for making and trading indigo.” It was used to make clothing, makeup and medicine, so precious that people spent it like money.

But the indigo trade had a dark side: “leaders and landowners around the world abused or enslaved countless people just so they could grow more indigo.” Enslaved Africans in the United States were forced to farm indigo since it was a very profitable cash crop.

While others were busy sourcing blue from nature, scientists worked hard to make a chemical blue that wasn’t “so difficult or cruel to produce.” In 1905 Adolf von Baeyer won the Nobel Prize for creating a chemical blue after forty years of trying.

Finally, everyone could afford something blue! As Brew-Hammond aptly reminds us, “blue was more than a color,” more than just clothing, jewelry or art. Because it was scarce, mysterious and had holy associations, “It was a feeling.”

Why do we associate “feeling blue” with sadness? Perhaps because of the painful memories associated with working the mines or of slavery on indigo plantations. Enslaved Africans in America “sang prayers that sounded like tears,” songs called spirituals, which in turn inspired the blues music genre.

We also use many “blue” expressions in everyday speech. When something happens “out of the blue,” we’re reminded blue was once so rare that its “discovery seemed to appear out of thin air.” Why do we award blue ribbons for first place? Blue is an extraordinary color, once the color of royalty, so it’s very fitting.

Daniel Minter’s gorgeous, evocative illustrations, created with layers of acrylic wash on heavy watercolor paper, beautifully extend and illuminate Brew-Hammond’s fascinating, lyrical text. Depicting various time periods across a wide geographical swath, he blends rich patterns, textures, artistic motifs and cultural flavors for a rich visual feast of magical realism.

Central to his interpretation is the inclusion of realistic hands in many of the spreads, perhaps to emphasize the human connection to the color blue with respect to its discovery, production, and global significance. We see hands using ancient tools chipping away deep in the mines, a hand holding a snail shell to extract its color, worshipping hands reaching for the sun, hands holding prayer beads to ward off evil spirits, hands distilling indigo dye and harvesting the plants, von Baeyer holding up a test tube in his right hand.

The book’s first spread shows three children floating upwards, reaching for the sky, and in the final spread, they are joined by a giant pair of blue arms, perhaps symbolizing how blue, with its “complicated history of pain, wealth, invention, and recovery” has become a symbol of possibility, “as vast and deep as the bluest sea, and as wide open and high as the bluest sky.”

BLUE is a well researched, stunningly presented exploration of a color with a fascinating backstory. Readers of all ages will be able to better appreciate blue’s lush beauty, inimitable allure and kaleidoscope of shades.

Back matter includes an Author’s Note, More Blue Facts to Explore, and an extensive Source List. Don’t miss this once-in-a-blue moon treasure!

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BLUE: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky
written by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
illustrated by Daniel Minter
published by Knopf BFYR, February 2022
Nonfiction Picture Book for ages 4-8, 40 pp.
**Starred Reviews** from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, BCCB

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*Interior spreads text copyright © 2022 Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrations © 2022 Daniel Minter, published by Alfred A. Knopf. All rights reserved.

**Copyright © 2024 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.