Orla Kiely Colours by Orla Kiely

Orla Kiely Colours by Orla Kiely
Buy Orla Kiely Colours by Orla Kiely at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Ruth Ng
Summary: Yummy mummies will coo over this - gorgeous to look at, but not that much fun for babies...
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: September 2011
Publisher: Egmont
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1405258562
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Orla Kiely is one of the UK's most popular designers at the moment. I seem to see her designs everywhere on everything from stationery to kitchen jugs, and now her graphics are available as a baby's book of colours.

First of all, this book is lovely to hold. It has a wonderful weightiness to it, and it feels nicely sturdy, ready to withstand being thrown across the room! The cover has a fabric feel to it, which makes it very touchable, and I think babies would like to stroke the cover as you read to them.

Inside there's a double page for each colour, with everything from orange to grey to purple. The colours themselves have a sorted of muted tone to them - no primary colours to be seen here! For each colour there's a page of the colour with one of Orla's designs, the opposite there's an object in the stated colour, so for orange there's an orange page with a grid design of orange coloured cars plus the word 'orange' then opposite there's a large picture of a car and the word 'car'.

My only concern really is that I don't think the book is much fun! For me it seems like the sort of book I would purposefully pack into the nappy change bag so that it might just fall out when I'm out for coffee with my mummy friends and oh, how classy I would look with an Orla Kiely baby book! You know, it's sort of a coffee table book but for babies. I wouldn't have wanted to read through it repeatedly to my daughter, however contemporary these designs may be, and would much prefer to hunker down with a the good old Dear Zoo that I defy any baby not to enjoy!

And the images themselves, whilst all very modern and lovely, aren't terribly engaging for babies. I also wasn't keen on the fact that some images are in their true colours (the page full of green pears) but then others aren't, for example the page with a black tree which, confusingly, is actually a white tree with a black background on the colours page...Confusing. And the patterned designs don't really provide much else to talk about as you read other than the name of the colour and the name of the object.

Still, it is a rather gorgeous looking book and whilst I am more pyjama mummy than yummy mummy I think there are plenty of mums out there who will feel the need to have this little book in their library. You might want to take a look first before you buy, to see if it's the sort of book you'll enjoy looking through repeatedly, but it would certainly make an impressive-looking gift for a new baby if you're struggling to find something for the mum who has everything.

I'd like to thank the pubishers for sending a copy to Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: A rather more fun board book for babies to learn about colours is Mr Pusskins - Colours by Sam Lloyd.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Orla Kiely Colours by Orla Kiely at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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