Slashiest children's book EVER

[gategrrl]

I bought a whole bunch of books through my son's teacher (Scholastic) - one of the books in this pack was "A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni. It's the story of a chameleon looking for his own color. The leaf he sits on turns from green, to yellow, to red, and then falls. After a long winter night during which he turns black, he goes out into the green spring grass and meets another, older and more experienced chameleon, and asks him, "Won't we ever have a color of our own?" The older chameleon tells him, "I'm afraid not. But why don't we stay together? We will still change color wherever we go, but you and I will always be alike."

The next couple of pages shows the two (male) chameleons side by side, being green together, yellow together, purple together, and finally red with white polkadots while sitting on a mushroom of that coloring. "And they lived happily ever after." The final picture shows the two of them with their tails entwined, standing right up next to each other, and looking affectionately at each other's eyes. It's most friendly and romantic. And so slashy!

It was first printed in 1975, too, for what it's worth.

Comments

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

It sorta reminds me of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. It had all sorts of wild stuff in it, but since it was geared towards children, no one ever paid much attention to it.

[writerfangirl.livejournal.com]

I have this great love for Rossetti's dark poetry because it makes me think of immortality. :-D I've been putting off reading "Goblin Market" for years, and I'm not sure why. I've heard of its illusions, though.