This is Orange: A Field Trip Through Color
Rachel Poliquin
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Candlewick Press
Ages 5-9
Available October 21st, 2025
Whether it’s that first juicy bite of a mandarin, the fur of your feisty tabby cat, or even the Guianan cock-of-the-rock’s flamboyant, lady-wooing crest, the color orange is everywhere… but who exactly was the first to call it “orange?” This exploration of color begins over six hundred years ago, when Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous book The Canterbury Tales describes a fox whose “colour was betwixe yelow and reed.” Although the word itself stems from the Tamil word for fragrant: naru, one of the English language’s first written accounts of the color orange comes from a description of the Queen of Scotland’s dress with “slevys of orenge colour.”This is Orange traces the color’s presence around our world, from the holidays we celebrate to the fruits we eat, even to the garb of astronauts and monks alike.
Author Rachel Poliquin draws inspiration from her Renaissance woman background—part museum curator, part humanities scholar, part literature PhD. She pairs simpler sentences for younger readers with fascinating fun facts for those who are a bit older, like how “the feet of mallard ducks turn bright orange when they are trying to find a mate, yet puffins’ feet are always orange” (22). The brisk pace and jumps from topic to topic—from color theory all the way to vexillology—keep This is Orange feeling bright and engaging rather than overwhelming, although the text may have benefited from the inclusion of a glossary for more curious readers.
A “field trip” might be one way to describe it, but in combination with Julie Morstad’s vibrant watercolor & pastel illustrations, where shades of apricot and calendula feel like they’ve been taken fresh from the paint palette, an “adventure” through color feels more like it.
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