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Books
Four illustrated picture books by David D. Gibson Sr., written for children roughly between four and eight, and written to be read aloud by an adult who has already had a long day.
Each one is built around a single idea small enough for a child to carry out of the book and into an actual afternoon — how a thought can change a mood, why it helps to stand in someone else's shoes, what fruit is doing for a growing body, why a rainbow needs every color in it. The story comes first in all four. The idea is what is left over once it finishes, which is a different thing from a lesson with a story wrapped around it.
Every book page below includes what is actually inside it, a suggested reading age, a few questions worth asking afterwards, and honest notes for the person doing the reading.
Illustrated picture book
COLORS
A rhyming picture book about why difference exists at all — drawn by the crayons themselves.
A box of crayons draws the whole world, and then has to work out why it took every single one of them to do it. A rhyming picture book about difference, belonging and what a rainbow would look like if somebody decided one color was enough.
By David D. Gibson Sr.
Ages 4–8 · read aloud
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Read & Color · 3 books in 1
Fruit Super Powers Unite!
Three rhymes about what fruit does for your body, each with its own coloring pages.
A rhyming picture book about what fruit actually does for a child's body. Three sections — citrus, berries and tropical fruit — each a short rhyme followed by its own set of coloring pages.
By David D. Gibson Sr.
Ages 4–8 · read together, color solo
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Illustrated picture book
Happiness is Just a Thought Away
Ten questions about things nobody likes, and ten answers that turn them over.
A rhyming question-and-answer picture book about looking at a bad thing a second time. Ten spreads, ten reframings — school, a cast on your hand, a rainy day, losing a game. The illustrations were created from real photographs of the author's own children when they were young.
Written by David D. Gibson Sr. · Illustrated by Michael Warren
Ages 4–8 · read aloud
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Illustrated picture book
Switching Shoes
This is a story to be told after… switching shoes.
A rhyming picture book about being young and being old, told by a grandfather clock to an audience of smartphones. Each pair of lines puts the same moment from both sides — what you want at seven, and what you'd give for it at seventy.
Written by David D. Gibson Sr. · Illustrated by Daniel Noriega
Ages 4–8 · read aloud
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Which one to start with
If you want a quiet read
Happiness is Just a Thought Away. A beach day that goes wrong and then comes back — the calmest of them, and the best bedtime book.
If a child has been left out
COLORS. A rhyming case for why it takes every color to make a rainbow — short, faith-framed, and the one that gets quoted back at you.
If there has been a falling-out
Switching Shoes. Read it on a calm day, not mid-argument, and it becomes a shared reference you can point back to later in one word.
If you need to fill an afternoon
Fruit Super Powers Unite!. Three stories and 74 pages of coloring, printable as many times as you like.
Meet the author
David D. Gibson Sr.
David writes picture books that hand kids something to carry — how a thought can change a mood, why it helps to stand in someone else's shoes, what fruit really does for a growing body. Each book is illustrated by a different artist, and the artwork for Happiness is Just a Thought Away was developed from real photographs of his own children.
More about David