Hello, Red Fox

In this imaginative book, Eric Carle invites young readers to discover complementary colors while enjoying the amusing story of Little Frog and his colorful friends.

It’s Little Frog’s birthday, and Mama Frog gets a big surprise when the guests show up for his party—all the animals are the wrong color! Little Frog tells her she’s not looking long enough, and he’s right.

Notes on Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle: “Over the years I have demonstrated to young children the basics of color theory developed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I ask them to tell me what the opposite of black is.

’White!’ the children shout.

’What is the opposite of red?’ I ask.

The children seem bewildered. How can red, or any other color, have an opposite color?

Even very young children are fascinated when I then demonstrate that, yes, red has an opposite color.

My book is not required for a demonstration. All you need is a well-lighted white background and a brightly colored object—let’s say a red glove. The glove can be real or cut from a red piece of paper.

Place the red glove on the white background. Ask the children not to move their eyes, as they stare at the red glove and count to ten. All this should be done quietly and peacefully.

Then remove the red glove, but not before the children have promised that they will keep their eyes on the spot where the red glove had been but no longer is. Slowly and faintly a green glove will appear and then disappear. Green is the opposite, or complementary, color of red.

Some children believe this is magic, a trick or an illusion. I tell the children that it is not, that something is taking place between the eye and the brain. My optometrist, Dr. Grossman, tells me it is called “simultaneous contrast after-image.”