The illustrations in this book are beyond gorgeous - there's a real Chris Van Allsburg look to them - so I hate giving such a middling review, BUT . . .

It's difficult to write a story about a dull, drab place without having your tale devolve into an equally miserable puddle. In this gray city, people are so beaten down and unhappy, I had a hard time working up much enthusiasm to continue reading. There's also a problem in that this picture book seems aimed at younger children, but there's so much text, I fear they will get bored.

AND, the ending? Though a happy one, I found it disappointing. The entire book revolves around the main character attempting to solve a problem. She does, and the book ends without much fanfare. Though we do get to see a glimpse of things to come, I'd have preferred one final illustration of the formerly gray city in all its gorgeous, pulsing color.

I'm sure we'll get a copy of this for our library, though I'm not sure who I'll recommend it to.

Book Review: The Gray City by Torben Kuhlmann

Rating: 4 Stars

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing The Gray City by Torben Kuhlmann, and let me just say, it was quite the visual treat! This beautifully illustrated book takes us on a captivating journey with a young girl named Robin, who finds herself in a peculiar city where color seems to have vanished. Everything around her—houses, people, even flowers—are all draped in dull shades of gray. It’s almost as if someone hit the mute button on life itself.

Determined to uncover the mystery behind the monochrome madness, Robin ventures out on an adventure that leads her to the enigmatic Gray Works company, which is at the heart of this colorless world. With her powers of deduction and the help of some clever friends, she sets out to infiltrate the company's control center and inject some much-needed color back into the city. Spoiler alert: by the end of her quest, only her trusty cat remains gray, which I found to be a delightful little touch!

First off, wow—let's talk about those illustrations! The artwork in this book is nothing short of stunning. Kuhlmann has this incredible ability to create a stark contrast between the gray tones that dominate the pages and the vibrant pops of color that are artfully sprinkled throughout. I particularly loved how Robin’s yellow coat stood out against the drab backdrop, symbolizing hope and creativity in a landscape starved of color. It's truly a feast for the eyes, and there's so much to take in and observe that I can see young readers being captivated not just by the story but also by the visuals.

While I would recommend this book for middle grade readers, I honestly think readers of all ages can appreciate its charm. The narrative cleverly introduces concepts like color theory and light refraction, making it both educational and entertaining. Plus, there’s a neat section at the back that dives deeper into these topics, as well as a brief author profile that adds a personal touch.

In conclusion, The Gray City is an enchanting read that combines a compelling story with breathtaking illustrations. It’s a reminder of the importance of creativity and imagination in our lives. If you’re looking for a book that sparks joy and encourages young minds to explore color in their world, this one is definitely worth picking up!

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️

Robin isn't happy about having to move again, but she's going to try to make the best of things. She has her crayons, her yellow raincoat, and a great view of the city from her bedroom.

Well...maybe not great. The city seems...gray. The more Robin explores her new city the more she discovers gray isn't just the way things are - it's the way they're required to be.

I don't know what I was expecting when I requested The Gray City, but it wasn't the book I ended up reading. The illustrations were lovely, but the story, the pacing, the characters, the ideas and plot twists discovered in each new chapter were so much more powerful than the book I'd originally anticipated. It made me think of the Handmaid's Tale, of Nazi Germany, of bootleggers, and so much more. The Gray City was an incredibly unique story all on its own, but it reminded me of so many others where the few refuse to bow to the injustice imposed on the many. It's a beautiful book, and I very much enjoyed it.

Robin loves color, but everything is grey in the new city she moves to. She insists on wearing her bright yellow jacket every day, and quickly learns that standing out has consequences. Along the way, she finds friends that help her stand against conformity, and her rebellion brings color back to the city.

I enjoyed the message of the book and loved the illustrations, especially the selective use of color to bring the story to life. My 7-year-old son was captivated by the images and I found the book helpful in providing an organic way to talk to him about marching to the beat of his own drum and celebrating differences amongst his peers.

Thank you to Torben Kuhlmann, NorthSouth Books Inc. and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of the book for an honest review.

Short story about moving into a new town and figuring out why everything is gray. I think my students would enjoy it. I think I might have just not been the target audience.

4 stars

This is a great book about not just giving into conformity for the sake of keeping the peace. A young girl moves to a town that is all gray, and despite the fact that she’s not doing anything that seems wrong, keeps getting into trouble for wearing colors other than gray and also using those colors in her school work. But she knows there has to be a reason behind all this gray-ness, and so she begins to investigate. This book has the feel of a dystopian novel told in the form of a picture book that feels fitting for middle grade readers up to younger YA, as there is a lot more text on the page than you will find in a standard picture book for young children. The illustrations are very well done too and really help tell the story.

The illustrations in this book are absolutely stunning. The gray with occasional splashes of color are eye catching and also set the tone for the book. There is so much detail in every single illustration! Library workers especially will love this story. No spoilers ;)

Thank you to NorthSouth Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC to read and review. This reads like a shorter chapter book (more so than a longer middle grade book that I'd expect) with a bit of adventure and mystery, which was a nice surprise -- and I have a 4th grader in my life who'd love the style. The story is engaging because of this cool concept (what if literally everything in a city was gray, and it HAD to be?!) and relatable at times, where it dips into lightly-approached themes of moving to a strange new place, ideas of conformity, and literally standing out due to being yourself. I love that it's a little about challenging about the status quo, while also being whimsical and thought-provoking. The illustrations are also amazing, and really bring the story and color theme to life beautifully.

Robin finds herself in a new city, where EVERYTHING is gray. She loves color and refuses to blend in with the gray masses, insisting on wearing her bright yellow jacket every day. She quickly learns that there are consequences for standing out, but she also discovers friends and allies in the fight against conformity. Her rebellion takes her on an adventure to bring color back to the city.
The selective use of color brings the striking illustrations to life, and Robin is a feisty main character that you want to root for. Ideal for fans of Hugo Cabret, this lushly illustrated short story will have you spending as much time with the pictures as the heartwarming story.

Robin has just moved to a new city, but finds that everything around her is completely gray. The buildings, cars, even books have been regulated to the point of only existing in gray tones. In an attempt to bring color back to the city for all people to enjoy, Robin teams up with a friend from school to ensure these regulations are abolished.

The illustrations in this book were beautiful watercolors which made the story only more engaging. Each image of Robin making her way through a muted city in her bright yellow raincoat drew interest and focus back to the page. The message of perseverance in Robin's efforts to regain color make an amazing point to kids on how important individuality is while also showing how they can enact change in the world around them (even if grown-ups tend to follow the crowd). It would be a welcome addition to any library or classroom, perhaps even as a lesson in color mixing in an art room!

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Gray City is a German translated children's picture book about a young girl who moves to a new city with her father. The girl notices straight away that everything in the city is gray from the paints on sale in the store (all in different shades of gray) to the cars and even materials at school (no coloured pencils there). When she meets a boy at school who is like her (a lover of colour) and spots a rainbow that leads her someplace filled with colour kept hidden from the public eye; the girl starts on a journey to change things. The book is illustrated all in gray tones with splashes of vibrant colours on small areas such as the girls' yellow coat. I would say this book is for ages 8+ and the illustrations are amazing - so much to take in and observe. At the back of the book is a page about colour mixing and refraction of light as well as a small author profile.

The Gray City is a story about a child who moves to a city without color. Grayness and unhappiness prevail in the city. Everywhere Robin goes, she wears a yellow raincoat.



In her attic room, Robin mourns how gray everything is as she looks out onto the city. Where has all the color gone? she wonders.



The first day of school, while everyone else colored pictures in gray, she colored a picture in colorful colors. Due to this, she gets in trouble and has to go to detention.


As everyone stands on the corner with gray umbrellas, she stands in her yellow raincoat.



It is impossible for the gray city to prevent the most beautiful rainbow of colors from forming in the sky. As she stared at the rainbow's colors, Robin wondered where it ended. To find out where the rainbow ended, she followed it.



Ultimately, the rainbow came to an end in a most peculiar place. Eventually, it led to a library. Robin entered. There were only a few gray books on the shelves. Robin's yellow raincoat attracted the librarian's attention, so she decided to tell her the secret of the library. A fantastic hidden room filled with colorful books would teach Robin all about the origins of color.



Robin would take this knowledge and help to change Gray City.

beautiful! The story follows a girl who lives in a colourless city and is determined to find and bring the colour back to her city.
I loved the use of colour and the illustrations were amazing.

The girl in the yellow raincoat moves with her family to a new city and everything in it is gray. But this is not a book about industrial pollution of the air, but of limiting the possibilities of the mind as represented by the absence of color. She meets a boy at school who has the same anger at the drabness of everything and together they work a little subversion with positive results.
Translated from the German by David Henry Wilson.
The finely detailed illustrations by the author are progressive in coloration making it clear what is happening.
Well suited for reading by someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting, but especially to a school, or your public library!
I requested and received a free temporary digital review copy on Adobe Digital Editions from NorthSouth Books Inc./NorthSouth Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Robin and her Dad have moved, again. This time, it’s into Gray City. The city was a dreary place, without a speck of color anywhere. And when Robin attends her new school, the lack of color there was shocking and mysteriously strange.

In an effort to change the dreary landscape, Robin enlists her artistic talents to draw a colorful picture for her class. And while honorable, Robin gets sent to detention. There, Robin meets Alani, a fellow classmate who is no stranger to the detention hall.

Together, Robin and Alani team up to uncover the secret of Gray City and solve the mystery behind their colorless world.

The Gray City was a wonderful read. And it’s a nice introduction into the mystery genre for middle grade readers.

With detailed illustrations, The Gray City was a pleasure to read. And as a bonus, there’s even some scientific facts about light refraction and color mixing at the end of the book. Excellent! Five stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from NorthSouth Books through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

This is the type of book that, had I read it as a kid, would've stayed with me for life. Robin moves to a new city where creative expression is stifled and colors are seemingly banned. She has to figure out who's behind it all and take them down with the help from her new friends. A classic stick-it-to-the-man story with fun characters and gorgeous illustrations. Kuhlmann was able to fit a good amount of plot into such a short book. This story has lots of heart AND a few lessons about the science of colors.

I found this story engaging and beautiful. The illustrations were simply captivating, and I believe children in grades 3 and up would enjoy this book. I would have liked more information about how the Gray in this town began.

Robin has moved to live in a new city. She quickly notices that everything is grey and she isn't sure why. Her bright yellow raincoat stands out in front of the grey buildings and grey-dressed people and her colourful drawing in school gets her in trouble on her first day, leading to an afternoon in detention. Things aren't all bad though and detention leads to making her first new friend, which then leads to more discoveries about her new home and light and the cause of all the grey.

I loved this book. I loved the large, incredibly detailed illustrations that give you something new to look at each time you return to the page (and this is definitely one of those books you'll keep going back to). I also really enjoyed the chapters. This looks like it will be a picture book and I guess it is but the print is the size you'd find in a normal fiction text and is in a block opposite the illustrations, rather than over the top or part of it. This cleverly adds to the grey feel of the book too.

At the end is an explanation of exactly what Robin discovers for herself (with help from a library, which is always nice to see), of how colours and light can be combined and split apart and what can be created from this.

This is definitely one I'll be adding to our school library when it's out.

𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦.

I received this ARC from NetGalley & NorthSouth Books. This middle grade book tells a story of "The Gray City" and how the arrival of a girl in yellow coat changed everything.

“𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨!” 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘺. “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘴—𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯!”

While the story invites us to discover how colors are made and how color mixes can produce white or black or - in this story - gray, I find that as exciting as it seems to discover how to bring out the colors, the story as a whole may not be inviting for young readers. There are scenes that do not set a good example for kids, good as the intentions may be.

I love the illustrations in this book and the lesson on light refraction and the process of mixing colors. However, the tone of the story did not quite draw me in.

This was a pretty simple, parable-like story with really evocative illustrations. A young girl moves with her father to a city that is, quite literally, gray. But the girl loves color and she and a new friend resolve to change things.