Pink

Pink

By Annie Murray

A review of Pink by Nan Gregory

Published on April 1, 2008

Pink
Nan Gregory

Groundwood Books
$17.95
cloth
24pp
978-0-88899-781-4

Vivi, star of Nan Gregory’s Pink, is a little girl who likes that colour. She also realizes she can’t have all she dreams of in this bittersweet story about longing and limits. After seeing a pink bride doll in a store window, she sets about doing errands in her neighbourhood to raise the money to buy it. Her hard-working parents struggle to make ends meet, but still manage to take her on a picnic where she can appreciate pink things like jam, cranberry tea, and blossoms. Gregory writes musically and poignantly about the world as Vivi sees it. “The Pinks” are the lucky nameless girls at school who own lots of pink things, and Vivi’s heart “break[s] up into stars” when she sees the doll at a toy store. Luc Melanson’s drawings show both the dreamy pink world Vivi longs for, and the sorrow and disappointment of not being part of that world. This is a gentle and well-illustrated story about loving what you have and seeing the pink around you. mRb

Annie Murray is a Montreal librarian.

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