The Hidden Rainbow by Christie Matheson

The Hidden Rainbow Reviews

• 
  Cheryl

  Wow. Not only rainbow colors, and counting, but also good science. Includes back matter. And it's *meta* (interactive) too! Ages 3-13 can get something out of it.
  
  The only thing not perfect is that sometimes I lost track of which flower is which color. Particularly, indigo is both a flower and a color.
• 
  Allie

  Fine? It's not the flower colors book I would choose, or the garden counting book I would choose, or the bee book I would choose. But I suppose if I really wanted all those things together I'd choose this? Whatever. It's cute. It's fine.
• 
  Olivia

  See my full review here:
  https://www.yabookscentral.com/kidsfi...
  
  THE HIDDEN RAINBOW is a delightful picture book that combines counting, colors, and nature in a beautiful exploration. Each page has a certain number of bees along with plants of a different color. To add to the appeal, each page also has an action item to make it interactive for children, where they blow a kiss, wave to the bees, and more to help the garden grow. Altogether, this ends up being a completely delightful journey while also allowing for learning.
  
  What I loved: I am always on the lookout for books that can teach the basics, including counting and colors, and the length of this one is perfect for older toddlers and preschoolers to bring these concepts back to mind in older children. The interactive nature of the book also makes this a really fun read for children, alone or in the classroom, as they "help" with nature and the bees. The book also manages to teach little facts about different plants here and there as well as convey the importance of bees to nature.
  
  This is really just a delightful book, both to read aloud and for children to hear. The text is also large and easy to read at a distance, making this great to read to groups of children as well as one-on-one.
  
  Final verdict: With learning and interactive experiences, THE HIDDEN RAINBOW is a fantastic picture book that combines counting, colors, and lessons about bees. Highly recommend for older toddlers and preschoolers.
  
  Please note that I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.
• 
  Molly Cluff (Library!)

  I love Christie Matheson's interactive books. This one might be a little more advanced because there are a whole bunch of different plants that the bees visit, but I really enjoyed exploring the garden and the introduction to what pollination is.
• 
  Christine Turner

  All the colors of the rainbow are hidden in the garden, but can the little bee find them--with help from the reader? Christie Matheson, author of the popular and acclaimed Tap the Magic Tree, brings a garden to life in this bright, interactive picture book about the natural world--and our place within it.
  
  One little bee peeks out on a world of gray and snow.
  
  She's looking for bright colors and needs you to help them grow.
  
  Bees need a healthy and colorful garden to survive. Luckily, all the colors of the rainbow are hidden in this garden--but the bees need the reader's help to find them. Brush off the camellia tree, tickle the tulips, and even blow a kiss to the lilac tree. With every action and turn of the page, a flower blooms and more bees are drawn to the feast.
  
  Christie Matheson is a master at creating simple picture books that encourage children to engage with the natural world. In The Hidden Rainbow, she introduces the colors of the rainbow, counting, and the basic ecosystem and vocabulary of a garden. Beautiful collage-and-watercolor art captures all the bold colors of a garden throughout the seasons, and the interactive text will captivate young readers at every story time
• 
  Jo Oehrlein

  An interactive book that counts one to ten (words, not numerals) and teaches about bees waking from winter and going out to pollinate.
  
  Do we want kids to think they need to wipe the snow off things so that they can bloom?
  
  There are bees to find and count on all the pages. One problem: the bees are the same size on every page without respect to the scale of the objects they're on. The bees on the trees would be terrifying if that were the bees' true size!
  
  Does teach a lot of names of blooming flowers and trees.
  
• 
  Bryan Loar

  The Hidden Rainbow is a vibrant addition to springtime picture books. With text that asks readers to participate, revealing bright, saturated spreads, Matheson's book is part counting, part color and all fun. Back matter describes the importance of bees as pollinators and how we can help. A folded and gathered (F&G) pre-publication edition was reviewed. Published on May 13, 2020 during much of the U.S. COVID-19 shutdown, this book deserves greater attention.
• 
  Ellon

  I really liked the journey through the colors ending with the food we eat. I also love the emphasis on the importance of bees. I liked that each page increased the number of bees and was a little like an I-Spy game. I wasn’t a huge fan of the other interactive attempts “blow a kiss to the lilac trees” “wave the bees back” etc. I get what the author was trying to do but it came off as a bit awkward.
• 
  Abby Johnson

  This colorful book is a celebration of the importance of bees as spring begins and flowers begin to bloom. The book shows flowers of different colors in a rainbow garden and explains why they're important to bees. Then it talks about why bees are important to humans - because they pollinate a lot of the food we eat. This is a wonderful introduction to pollinators and has some tips for making your yard bee-friendly. Share this one in springtime or any time.
• 
  Annamarie Carlson (she, her)

  Learn about different plants in a garden by moving through interactive pages as spring turns to summer. Tickle the tops of tulips, blow the Forget-Me-Nots dry, and count the bees to keep the story moving.
  
  Another cute, interactive title by Matheson with a ton of spring appeal. While there is more to learn about different types of plants, this book feels a little more stilted than her past interactive titles like Tap the Magic Tree.
• 
  Tori Rumschlag

  The Hidden Rainbow by Christie Matheson is a cute, stylized picture book about the types of plants that bees use to pollinate vegetables and fruits as well as create honey. The emphasis of this book is on teaching colors of the rainbow, using bees and plants as the medium for this color palate. The watercolor illustrations are eye-catching, and teaching colors is a big advantage for this story at younger children’s programs.
• 
  Janine Kunz

  4-8 years old. This book invites readers to count bees and use hand motions to help plant a garden. The illustrations are very pretty. The book leans educational with plant identification although because it's illustrated in watercolors a bit hard to use practically (for example when discussing early spring crocuses, the illustrations of bright orange watercolor flowers don't look like crocuses to me.)
• 
  Dale

  (early) 06.22.2020: per Berea Clerk Supervisor (DaJa) recommendation to my spouse…; 06.24.2020: really a counting book, starting with one bee then adding another until a rainbow occurs; not really that interesting except for informative information about the importance of bees at the end; the author calls this an interactive picture book; 2020 hardback via Madison County Public Library, Berea, unnumbered pgs.
  
• 
  Gabrielle Stoller

  A fun interactive read involving colors, counting, flowers, trees, and bees. I need to add this one to my storytime docket.
  
  Something fun in Christie Matheson's latest offering is tie ins of text (like words of plants) and involving children reading them, learning letters, etc. It is an excellent ECRTR extension where I would share a "golden nugget" about the spoken word and the written word!
• 
  Krista

  This educational book involves counting, colors and learning about plant names.
  The illustrations are a beautiful water-color style.
  There is a lot of information in the back about the life of bees.
  I enjoyed reading it to preschool age children and plan to use
  it during art class in my first grade classroom.
• 
  Katie

  I love Christie Matheson's books and would highly recommend them for any preschool aged kids. This would be perfect in a planting or pollinator unit. The images are beautiful, text lyrical, and the interactive nature of the book keeps kids interested (finger movements, counting, search and find).
  
  
• 
  Suebee

  The illustrations were gorgeous, but the text needs a complete rewrite, in my opinion. I don't like when the text hinders your ability to linger over a page by writing a "half sentence" that completes on the next page, or confuses you if you're supposed to blow on the violet flowers or count the bees?
• 
  Raven Black

  I really liked the illustrations. The colors are perfectly suited for the theme. The story itself is not 100% "smooth" for me, but works for the younger reader. A fun way to introduce colors to younger kids and how bees help us for the older kids. The beginning reader can do some reading with help.
• 
  Cara Byrne

  Like her _Tap the Magic Tree_, this is a fun, interactive book that helps readers practice counting, learning colors, and exploring the natural world. This was great for both my toddler and first grader.
• 
  Katie

  A solid color/plant/garden book for kiddos, which highlights the work bees do. Each page has an action for children to perform such as swiping, tapping, or tracing. There is one page that asks children to blow, which means I would not use this in a group setting.
• 
  Amy

  I love Christie Matheson's "interactive" books! This one is a little more complex in subject matter than her other ones have been but covers the topics of pollination and the vital importance of honey bees in a really engaging, beautiful way.
• 
  Jessie

  An interactive counting and color book about gardens. Number words (no numerals), and only counting the bees.
  
  The bees remain the same absolute size on every page, regardless of the changing scale, which is a little distracting.
• 
  Beth Kakuma-Depew

  I read this during virtual storytimes and I find it fun. The interactive aspects kinda work and the counting and hunting for the bees kinda works. (probably better in a lap-sit reading than a storytime reading).
• 
  Emily

  Another interactive nature title from Matheson, this time highlighting the colors of the garden. There's counting as well as colors, and the book goes through a rainbow set of flowers and then through an orchard where a rainbow set of fruit comes in.
• 
  Lisa

  Another library shelf find about colors. I liked the full color pages, the interactive aspects (having the reader do something in the garden to progress the story), and how it showed many colors next to each other in the same garden.
• 
  Rebecca

  Presents an array of flowers in ROY G BIV colors while extolling the importance of bees. I'm not sure I've ever seen indigo lilacs (like a dark navy blue?), but when you commit to a structure like this, you're going to have the "X" problem that alphabet books have. :)
• 
  Anthony

  A look at how Bees, the pollinators, feed on different colored trees, and flowers to help spread pollen and make food. Planting flowers in a garden will attract the hungy bees to help continue the cycle of life.