My Many Colored Days is a book written by Dr. Seuss, but only published posthumously. The art, instead of the typical quirky illustration of Seuss books, consists of edge-to-edge brilliant paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.
Apparently Ted (Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss) was never happy with his attempts to illustrate the book and so it went unpublished. I consider it a gift to us all that his wife Audrey saw this book through publishing.
The point or theme of the book is the exploration of emotion for very young people. This is accomplished by relating various emotions to colors: happy and energetic days are bright red, slow and "low, low down" days are brown, purple are sad, etc. The book addresses an important and complex topic in a brilliantly kid-friendly way. The message is short and sweet and the art is terrific. It was first published as a regular hardback book, but has been available as a small-format board book for several years.
If I were suggesting books to new parents who would only buy five, this would be on the list.