In an offbeat exploration of color, the creator of the “Blue Dog” paintings asks, “Why is Blue Dog blue?” Rodrigue goes on to say that “artists don’t have to paint things the way they really are.” Indeed, Blue Dog can be painted “mustard” when the artist is hankering for a hot dog, or “tan” when he visits the beach. Blue Dog becomes a virtual chameleon, as he is pictured in shades from salmon to moss green, but in the end, Rodrigue is drawn back to his original inspiration: the blue sky. Changes in the color and size of the font, and its creative placement on the page, contribute to this whimsical treatise on Blue Dog, a well-known icon the author first painted in 1984. (Ages 4-8)

"Why Is Blue Dog Blue? Blue Dog's creator, George Rodrigue, takes readers on a playful tour of his unique color world. In it, he combines preposterous puns with all-new whimsical Blue Dog silkscreens to go where other color guides are too yellow-bellied to tread. Readers of all ages will giggle as Blue Dog changes color from red or green to auburn or chartreuse. Along the way, readers learn a lot about colors and their names, from basic primary and secondary colors to the exotic ones most color primers ignore completely. But more important, this book is a fun-filled demonstration of how artists use color to enrich their art. Children and adults alike will be surprised by this imaginative and expansive explanation of Blue Dog's color. And by the end of the book, they will see that the artist's reasoning is both logical and magical: Blue Dog simply had to be blue." -- Abrams Books.