Helme Heine was born in 1941 in Berlin and studied Economics and Art before he travelled, at the end of the sixties, throughout Europe and Asia, also including several long stays in Johannesburg (South Africa). In 1975 he had his first book published and he started his successful career as an author. In his picture books, animals that resemble domestic pets frequently appear. So, his world is inhabited by pigs, elephants, mice, birds… princes, wizards and, sometimes, by child like beings. His stories are about two main topics: cohabitation and friendship. Helme Heine is one of the most acclaimed German authors and he has been awarded with numerous prizes and awards, outside and inside Germany.
What colours are in the rainbow? The sheep, the mouse, the chicken and its chicks go in search for them. “From the sky, blue; from the mouse, grey, from the tomato, red, and brown from the bread… and in the green of the meadow, the yellow of the egg”. And the rainbow is ready.
“… a picture book with double-paged drawings, made with pastel watercolour, that tell the story, complement it and are in perfect harmony with the text…” (SOL).
It is not usual at all to meet a hare that has a red nose and a blue ear, but Helme Heine makes, in just a few beautiful pages, this amusing hare to have a good appearance and, which is more important, he makes the hare’s peculiarities to be eventually unnoticed by her natural “enemy”, the fox.
A beautiful story with a meaning, for the youngest children