By Trudy Ludwig
Brian is the boy nobody at school quite notices, and the artist draws him in gray pencil while the other children are in full color. Then a new classmate is kind to him, and the color slowly starts filling him in.
Brian is easy to miss. He doesn't get picked for kickball, doesn't get an invitation to the birthday party, doesn't get called on in class. Patrice Barton draws him in pale gray pencil while the louder, more confident children around him are in full color, so you can watch him fade into the background on every page. Then a new boy named Justin joins the class and gets teased about the lunch he brought from home. Brian knows that feeling, and he slips Justin a small kind note. That's where the friendship starts, and page by page a little color begins to fill Brian in.
If you have a quiet child, this may be the book they recognize themselves in. It doesn't only tell you Brian feels invisible, it draws it: the gray pencil does the work before any word explains why he's sad, and that's what lets it reach a young child. Brian is also the one who acts. His own memory of being overlooked is exactly what lets him notice Justin and reach out. He isn't fixed by being made louder or more outgoing; he gets noticed and included as he already is. For a child who tends to hang back, that's a good thing to find in a book.