The illustrations of this book are gorgeous, and I guess on the surface, the idea of bringing color and joy to a community is a lovely idea. But the entire story feels like it was written by someone who has either never thought about colonization or supports it.

This tells the story of the home world of Monochrome, where the book is set. On Monochrome, there is a culture of strict rule following, and everything is in black and white. When an alien from Prismatic lands on Monochrome, she immediately decides that she doesn’t want to learn about the native culture, nor does she want to try to follow any of the rules. Instead, since she feels that the way her home world is set up is best, she and one of the Monochrome natives that she meets change the entire world of Monochrome to model her home world.

At the end of the story, they decide to change the name of Monochrome, having largely erased its native culture and customs and replaced them with the customs of the colonizing Prismatic. We, as the reader, are supposed to cheer for this, because the way that Monochrome’s natives live is perceived as objectively wrong, and the culture and customs of Prismatic are perceived as objectively better.

I’m not sure that’s actually a feel-good story.