The Orange Wall: An Acorn Book

PreS-Gr 1–In this third installment of the “Rainbow Days” series, budding artist Zoya searches her room for something to paint. Finding nothing, she decides to paint the room itself, with a different color for each wall. She enlists the help of her mother and her puppy, Coco, and the three painters set to work. The only tension in the narrative comes when Coco is sent outside after spilling paint and leaving colorful paw prints on the floor. With two lines of easily decodable text on each page, this title is aimed at emerging readers who can sound out text and recognize sight words but aren’t ready for books with full paragraphs. Digital illustrations show Zoya, who is Black, envisioning each phase of the project before making it a reality with the help of her loving parents. Artistic readers may find inspiration from Zoya’s project, but the lack of tension in the story leaves the plot fairly thin. Recommend this one to sensitive readers who need a gentle story with little conflict. For more nuance and character development at a similar reading level, try Kevin Henkes’s “Penny” series.