A Taste of Colored Water (2024)

I ran across this gem while looking for a book about "Water" for a class assignment. It is truly a gem. I have read countless books about the Civil Rights Era for children, but this books shows the events from the eyes of innocent children on the other side. Two children, Lucresia (LuLu) and Julius (Jelly) hear a story from a neighbor about a colored bubbler (water fountain). Who'd ever heard of "colored" water coming out of a bubbler? Lulu and Jelly are determined to go to town to taste the water that they imagine will taste like cherry, lemon, orange and apple. After reaching town they realize the difference between the city and their rural area. They find the fountain across the street in front of city hall. Once they make it to the fountain, LuLu realizes that there is a protest going on and that the police and fire fighters are hurting the people. When Jerry tries to drink, an officer pushes him away with the warning to go home. The kids find their uncle and the question is asked, ...what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?

Beautifully illustrated, the colors extend the story in that they give an idea of what the youngsters think about the term "colored". It is age appropriate, in that it lightens the subject of such a harsh era in American history. I would recommend this to accompany a lesson on racism and segregation. Other similar books I recommend: The Other Side, Ruth and the Green Book, Grandmama's Pride, Back of the Bus, White Socks Only and White Water.

A Taste of Colored Water is a historical fiction book. It is about a little girl and boy from a small town, who travel to the big city to search for the colored water they heard about from a friend. They imagine this water is going to be many colors with many wonderful flavors. When they finally get to the city though, they are in for a big surprise when they run into a march for civil rights.
Activities:
1)This would be a good story to read after learning about the Civil War or during Black History Month. Tie into a social studies lesson. While reading the story to the students, pause at certain points in the story to ask what they think is going to happen, and what they think the boy and girl will find in the big city. What do they think colored water is? Who are all those people in the picture holding signs? After reading the story, discuss the civil rights era. This book could be an opening for a short unit on the civil rights era. Discuss the meanings of equality, segregation, fairness, feelings, kindness. Have the students research famous black people who have made a difference in this country. (Give the students a list to chose from, including politicians, actors/actresses, athletes, musicians, etc.). The people they research may be someone who is still living, like a fighterfighter during 09-11-01. After they research the person, instead of making a report, they will write a short story (with pictures) about the person's life (just highlighting important dates in that person's life). Each page could have a picture, and then a paragraph or two describing the scene.
2) Discuss how it probably felt to be a black person during the civil rights era, and how they were treated unfairly for no good reason, just because the color of their skin was different. Discuss that everybody is different, unique, and special in their own ways. Everyone has feelings, and it is important to be considerate of other people's feelings. Why? Have each person in the class write something nice about each of the rest of their classmates, including themselves. The comment should describe a talent or quality that that person has.

Published in 2008, the message in "Colored Water" is, unfortunately, a necessary one for our children in 2018. Skin color or visible differences do not make one human inferior to another. People are people no matter the skin color or other personal traits.

I was hooked with the very first line, "It was Abbey Finch who started it all." I had to know what she started. I had to read on and I was so glad I did. Matt Faulkner's beautiful illustrations were wonderful. His southern language really had me surprised to learn that he is not originally from the south. {Great job}
The author highlighted the innocence of children with their view of "Colored Water" signs above the water fountains. I wondered why I had not had that thought myself, but since I'm African American, I guess I grew up knowing the negative side of that phrase.
Imagine a child asking, "what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?"

The curiosity of Jelly and Lulu is precious as is the care and concern of Uncle Jack when he doesn't find the kids in the truck amidst a civil rights demonstration.

The author's notes in the back of the book were as important to me as the story itself. I hope you will read this one and share its message.

This was a bit of a challenge to read to the girls - in part because it requires so much base knowledge to understand and it part because it’s just super hard to explain the logic behind racism. Kait’s initial response was more about how it’s good to have more than one water fountain because then if one’s busy... We did get there in the second reading, I think. The lack of background on voting rights also made it harder to explain the pictures. But in general, I liked the story. I liked that they went off on this quest andnsaw things that upset them. I do wish a bit that the children in the story had come to some sort of understanding of what they witnessed - I think that might have facilitated the reading children to get it better as well.

My National Picture Book Month pick for today is Michigan author and illustrator Matt Faulkner's book, "A Taste of Colored Water,"(Simon and Schuster 2008). This book is special to me because of my deep southern roots and my family's stories of their experiences with the fight for racial equality. Matt does an amazing job of taking a difficult subject, often hard for children to understand, and treating it in a way that explains, while encouraging kids to draw their own conclusions about segregation and the fight for freedom. His beautiful illustrations give a warm and homey feel to the book, and the expressions on Jelly and LuLu's faces throughout the story pull kids in for an authentic, first-hand experience.

My dad could have easily been the one in the truck coming to town to taste the magic colored water, as they were just dirt farmers working alongside their African American friends scratching out their living from the soil. Each time I read this book I picture Dad sitting on the back porch of a local hamburger joint eating with his friend Whitt, because Whitt was black and not allowed to go in the front door.

This is a must read for parents and teachers who want to give children a "kid's-eye" view of segregation and how it finally came to an end.

Author Matt Faulkner really does a remarkable job explaining a significant time in history through the eyes of children. When Lulu visits the city and sees a water fountain with print on it reading, colored water. She returns home to tell her friends that there is such a thing as colorful water and it pour out of a water fountain. Sadly to their surprise when returning to the city; the children find that the water is as clear as what runs through their faucets at home. This is where they see segregation for the first time. Great book.

Very thought provoking. Loved the illustrations. The theme of the kids' naivete running smack-dab into the reality of intolerance is very well portrayed. The afterword is an important part of this book and could be read to an older child. I like this book; it covers a part of our history that needs to be remembered--so that it won't be repeated. And I think Faulkner handles it in a way that kids can relate to and that isn't overly harsh.

This is a beautifully written book about two kids misunderstanding about segregation. I would live to read this to my class when discussing segregation to talk about different view points. SO often we teach that most white people hated black people and there were only a few good people. We never think of the children who did not even know what segregation was because it was literally did not exist to them.

A beautiful introduction to the Civil Rights movement for younger children. When a neighbor comes back from town with tales of "colored water fountains" in the city, the two main characters are tantalized by notions of flavored, rainbow-hued water bubbling out of the spigot, and they can't wait to go try it for themselves. The truth, of course, is much uglier. A great way to spark discussion.

Of course Jelly and LuLu assume that 'colored water' sign meant "a magical place where fruit-flavored water flowed on demand"...they're kids and they don't possess the same hateful, bigoted views that whites had in 50's and 60's. When they are caught next to the fountain, things turn ugly and dangerous. They had never heard of Jim Crow Laws.

I like this book very much. I thought it was funny that they thought "colored water" meant that the water was colored. But I also thought that it was mean to that a fire truck and splash water on African american just because you don't like their skin color. I think that the boys were very open minded, they of the good thing first before they thought of the bad thing.

Great way to introduce kids to equality and the past segregation.

Summary: This story takes place somewhere in the south during the 1960s. There was a girl named Abbey Finch that went to the big city with her mom and came back to town talking about how she saw a water fountain with a sign that said "colored" above it. Two kids named Jelly and Lulu just so happened to be the kids she was telling the story. They were fascinated by this they wondered how it was possible for there to be such a thing as colored water. They also wondered what it would taste like cherry, lemon, strawberry, or orange. They made a plan to go to the big city and it so happened that Jelly's dad needed to head into the city for a part for this tractor. Jelly and Lulu were laughing and whispering the whole there because Jelly's dad had no idea about their plan. He seemed nervous when they got to the city and the kids did not really understand why, but in the pictures, you can see that there are protestors everywhere for the civil rights movement. Jelly's dad tells them to wait in the truck but they don't listen and they head to the fountain to taste the "colored" water. Down the hill, they can see people marching and think it is a parade but then they see the firefighters shooting the people with water. Right before Jelly can taste the water, a police officer yells at them to get away from there because it is only for "colored" people. They run bad to Jelly's dad and he scolded them but just wanted to make sure they were okay and headed home. They did not understand what they had witnessed that day.

Themes: The theme of this book is civil rights. I think this theme is important to recognize because it is a hard topic to cover but every bit of it is worth for society to have better understanding of the topic. The topic impacted so much of our history and even now today we are still recovering from everything that went on in those times.

Personal Response: I love this book because I find the civil rights movement very interesting time in our history. I think it is important to recognize our history because it has a way of repeating itself. By knowing it, we can notice this in the future and try to prevent it. I also like this book because it shows the innocence of people at this time too. It shows not all of them were racist and some just wanted to go on about their lives without causing any harm to anyone else around them. I also like books that talk about issues that tend to be more kept hush hush because those are the ones that need to be discussed.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book for 3rd through 6th grade. I say 3rd because that is the time where you begin to talk about more serious issues. The perfect grade for it though is 5th grade because I remember that is when my teacher taught us the most about the civil rights movement and they are old enough to fully understand what was happening at this time. This book is good to bring up how African Americans may have felt at this time and the way racism still affects society in today's world. I think from this book it will strike up serious ideas in the people of our future which is the students that would read this. Letting them know about these issues will make them more aware of the the world and ultimately make them better citizens in turn.

Summary: Two cousins heard a rumor from a friend that she had seen colored water in the big city. The two curious cousins were so intrigued to see and drink from the colored water that when their uncle needed to go to the big city they convinced him to take them. When they arrived to the big city instead of waiting in the car as their uncle commanded, they went looking for the colored water. They encounter with some bad experiences because of disobeying and going to where the colored water was and learned their lesson.

Theme: There are three major themes in this story. One is that you should never disobey to your family because bad things can happen when you do. Another major theme is that you should not believe everything you hear. The last major theme is about how harsh and difficult it was in times of segregation and how white and black people were separated.

Personal Response: I really liked this book because it shows several lessons to kids. I was really shocked with the last sentence of the book “Daddy, what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?”. It made me realize that there was actually no colored water, what it meant was that it was for colored people to drink.

Why I recommend this book: I would recommend this book because it teaches important lessons to kids about being aware of their surroundings by not believing everything they hear, obeying, and realizing what is happening around them.

Summary: This book was based on Segregation and Civil Rights. Two young children named Lulu and Jelly who lives in a small country overheard their friend Abbey Finch say there was a colored water in the big city. The children were so curious about seeing the colored water that they convinced Uncle Jack to take them along with him to the big city. When they finally find the colored water, they witness racial violence between protesting black people and police/fireman. Lulu and Jelly didn't understand why the policeman were hurting the others and why the others were marching, singing, and carrying signs.

Rating: 4

Explanation: This book can be used into a history lesson during Black History Month. Children will see that there was a lot of segregation and that they couldn’t even drink out of the same water fountain. It can explain to them what segregation is and why it’s not good to have.

This story is about two kids who learn about colored water, and think that it must be this special water that changes colors and tastes amazing. They convince their uncle to take them into the city to try the colored water, but what they find there is not what they expected. They see segregation with their own eyes and start to realize that the colored water isn’t any different than regular water, but only african americans are allowed to drink it. I honestly didn’t really find this book very useful. There isn’t very much actual education about what is going on in the book, and the ending was abrupt and didn’t really make sense. I just didn’t think it did anything to actually explain what was happening in the book. I would choose a different book to teach my class about segregation. I don’t recommend this book.

I gave this book 3 stars because it's very informational and talks about the things that happened years ago, in history. I read this to my 4th grade buddies, and thought for sure I would get some sort of negative opinion on this book. Background info on both my buddies, one of them is either fully African American or half, not completely sure. The other one is Russian. Both of them said it made them feel "happy", this confirmed that they had no idea the true meaning of the story, they are both also very quiet and very shy. A Taste of Colored Water is about the segregation of drinking fountains. Neither of my buddies got the concept of this book, and I felt it was not my place to explain what the books underlying meaning was, as I am not their teacher nor their parents. Overall, this book would probably be seen as controversial in a classroom, but that is my opinion.

A Taste of Colored Water is a story about two young children that think “colored water” meant that it had colors like red, orange, blue, etc. instead of being for “colored” people. The two children Jelly and Lulu are from a small town but venture into the big city two get a taste of the colored water, only when they find it, they are not allowed to taste it. The two see people marching and singing and then… hit with water from a firetruck?
Why would the people need to be hit with the hard water from the hose? Why can Jelly and Lulu not drink from the colored water bubbler? These are possible questions that a teacher could ask the students or questions that students may ask the teacher after reading. This book is a great way to introduce the Civil Rights Movement to your students in a way that students can understand.

I love this book. I enjoy reading books in the classroom that not only have a really important message for kids, but also serve a purpose in literacy and comprehension. While I appreciated the civil rights message of this book, there's a lot more to it that can be used with comprehension strategies as well.

When I was in elementary school we used to drive past a place in town that said "pool hall" on the window. For the longest time, I really did think there was a swimming pool inside. My mom had to explain to me about billiards and pool tables for me to understand what was really there. I think this book is so good to use to discuss visualization and background knowledge. When kids hear of colored water, and no prior background of civil rights, their mind creates different images based on what they have experience with. This is why background knowledge is so important in comprehension. As we gain new information, our schema changes.

A Taste of Colored Water is a historical fiction book published in 2008. Its about cousins who were told of a fountain that had colored water and had to try it for themselves. When they get into town and before they could try the water a protest started up and they were quickly rushed out. This is where the story became a bit confusing and without adequate background knowledge about the time period this would not make much sense as to what is happening. However, it does address the misconceptions children have and can be used to introduce the history of segregation as students could be asked to make guesses as to what is happening.

Recent events made me think about this book again. It was a great book for starting a discussion about the civil rights movement with my daughter, when she was young.
Lulu and her cousin are curious about colored water and what it tastes like. What they think will be a magical fruit flavoured experience changes when a civil rights protest is occurring in the town they visit.
I also recommend Champions on the Bench by Weatherford as a good discussion starter.

Expertly written, richly detailed, intelligent and driven. This book proves that the heavy mantle of racism, that America's brutal racial history inflicts and effects us all. Told from the perspective of two Southern white children, this provides fresh light upon the ongoing struggle against American racism. Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

Each January I do an extensive until on Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. This book is a fantastic choice for the third grade read aloud. I teach about Jim Crow laws which are upsetting and difficult to understand. This book makes it accessible to children. I absolutely love it.

Grade: 1-5
Genre: Historical Fiction
Review: this is an interesting book because the kids don’t see color. They try to understand why it’s called a colorful water fountain. This book can show children that there was a lot of segregation and that they couldn’t even drink out of the same water fountain. It can explain to them what segregation is and why it’s not good to have.

I read "A Taste of Colored Water" to my children and we discussed together. An especially important topic to teach equality to children and obviously to adults alike since so many adults in our society were not taught these principles of equality and respect in their youth. I hope this new generation can end racism once and for all.

This is a great book to learn about the innocence of children and the way that they think. This book took place during the time of segregation and there were colored water fountains where Jelly and LuLu thought it was special water. This is a great book to use as a teaching resource to your students when talking about segregation and all that went on during that era.

This 2008 Historical fiction book was very eye-opening. It provided a children's point of view during civil rights events in the 1960's. Overall, through colorful illustrations, this book displayed both naivety, as well as the hard reality of segregation and discrimination from our nation's past.

Another of the books in @Jess5th 's inferring from book covers lesson. I know I've read it before now. Maybe it was pre-goodreads.

https://crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wor...

Truly wonderful a child's mind is. (Yoda) A picture book that takes place during the civil rights era and focuses on two children who, in their innocence about the things around them, mistake “colored” in a colored water sign for something wonderful.

Like other reviewers mentioned, I think really understanding this book requires more background knowledge than most younger children would immediately have. (Might be more successful to read it after a unit on American history.)

Gorgeous illustrations & creative premise.