B3 Kakeru KIKUCHI
The first semester at the university is over, and we have been on summer break since August. However, due to the expansion of COVID-19, non-essential outings are restricted, and we are neither free to meet with friends nor go anywhere we want. Therefore, I think most of you spend time at home. We have been living like this for more than a year and a half now, and maybe some of you are feeling bored at home anymore. Therefore, at this time, I would like to introduce to you something for fun that everyone can enjoy at home.
Watching movies, listening to music, reading books, and or doing exercise-like workouts might have been your favorite pastime as far. Of course, I also like to watch movies and read books, but I would like to introduce picture books to you. I am sure you all had read picture books when you were little. You can find numerous picture books that make you smile, move you, and incorporate playful elements, just like those you loved as a child. Many picture books are illustrated with many colors so that children can enjoy reading them, but the one I want you to introduce is not.
This picture book is in Spanish, and its title is "El libro negro de lo colores," which means the black book of colors. One of the characteristics of this book is all the parts other than the text are entirely black, and no color is used. So how do you read this book? It can be understood by touching the book. Instead of using colors, all the pictures are drawn with small bumps in this book, and the text is written in Braille. That's right. This book is designed for blind people.
Picture books are not just for children, and they are not just for people who can see. When I found these kinds of picture books, I changed my mind about them. Some picture books are inspiring even for us to read, and some can even be viewed as works of art. Also, another wonderful feature of picture books is that they never fade away, no matter what time of the year it is. Some of the picture books that we read when we were children are being read by children today. Therefore, I would like to keep the picture books I have been collecting and show them to my children when I have children in the future. Why don't you look for your favorite picture books when you go to a bookstore?
