the brightness and rightness of orange

This Bridge Will Not Be Gray, story by Dave Eggers, art by Tucker Nichols
published in 2015 by McSweeney’s

The more you read, the more you discover things you didn’t know that you didn’t know.

And here is one of the things I just discovered I didn’t know that I didn’t know: Why the Golden Gate Bridge is orange.

I mean, I knew it was orange because they painted it orange. Yes.

But why orange? That was not something I had thought to ask myself.

However, now I know why and I am here to tell you: it is worth discovering. It is a curiously interesting story, and leave it to Dave Eggers to tell us in a curiously interesting manner.

In his winning, new, book you will also find out about Life Before the Bridge and Who Built It and Who Designed It and a Number of Other Interesting and Somewhat Obscure Facts. All presented in a  most engaging voice.

Tucker Nichols’ cut paper illustrations are brazen, bold, Matisse-esque figures in colors as unusual as…as…as an orange bridge! 

The storytelling and art works together swimmingly, captivating us, regaling us with this slightly-quirky,refreshingly-original story of a guy who saw beyond gray and stuck with orange.

A treat for ages 5 through adult.