Blog Post 2 – Multicultural Literature - A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni

 

​In this story a chameleon is trying to find his way in the world. He is trying to define who he is based on his color. Since a chameleon has no color of his own and his color changed this character decides he needs to be one color. On his journey he meets other animals and realizes that being with others and having friends is more important to him then having his own color. 

​This is a fiction/fantasy book because we know that chameleon can not talk so it is not a real story. It does however have some aspects that are true or real such as the color of the animals the main character meets along the way. It is also true that a chameleon can change their color so this is another aspect of the story that can be real. 

​Some suggestions for some motivational activities that can be done in this story is asking the children to write in their readers response journal an answer to the question; What did the chameleon want to be in the story? Where would you put the chameleon so he would change his color? At the end of the story what did the chameleon realize?  Another activity you can do with the children is to relate the chameleon to themselves and talk about how it is not important what the chameleon looked like on the outside it is what is on the inside that is important because everyone is special and unique. The children can write in the writing notebook about what makes them special and why? This will help them begin to realize that we need to look on the inside at what makes people special and unique. 

​Leo Lionni is a great author of children’s books some of my favorite books are Inch by Inch, Fish is Fish (Caldecott Honor-winning), Swimmy (Caldecott Honor-winning), Little Blue and Little Yellow. This is one author I highly recommend for the preschool and elementary school classrooms. His books are colorful, fun and teach some great lessons to the young and older child.