Katie Kissinger - All the Colors We Are/Todos los colores de nuestra piel: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color/La historia de por qué tenemos diferentes colores de piel

This book is dedicated with love to my daughters, Mandy and Laura,
and to my parents, Mary and Larry Kissinger

Este libro est dedicado con cario a mis hijas Mandy y Laura,
y a mis padres Mary y Larry Kissinger

Published by Redleaf Press
10 Yorkton Court
St. Paul, MN 55117
www.redleafpress.org

Text 2014 by Katie Kissinger
All photographs 2014 by Chris Bohnhoff except page 3 by Rob Marmion/
Getty Images/Hermera; page 23 by Paul Vasarhely/Getty Images/iStockphoto;
and page 27 (right) by Geo Martinez/Getty Images/Hemera

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page, no portion of
this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a critical
article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically
transmitted on radio, television, or the Internet.

First edition published 1994. Twentieth-anniversary edition 2014.
Jacket and interior design by Agency F Design
Photographs by Chris Bohnhoff
Typeset in Bryant
Translation provided by ONeill Language Academy
The map on page 25 was recreated with permission from Geographic
Distribution of Environmental Factors Influencing Human Skin Coloration by
George Chaplin ( American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125: 292302),
2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Printed in Canada
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kissinger, Katie, 1951- author.
All the colors we are : the story of how we get our skin color = Todos los
colores de nuestra piel : la historia de por qu tenemos diferentes colores de
piel / Katie Kissinger ; photographs by Chris Bohnhoff. 20th anniversary
edition = Edicin 20 aniversario.
pages cm
English and Spanish.
First edition 1994Title page verso.
Summary: Explains, in simple terms, the reasons for skin color, how it is
determined by heredity, and how various environmental factors affect it.
ISBN 978-1-60554-079-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. SkinPhysiologyJuvenile literature. 2. Human skin colorJuvenile
literature. 3. MelaninsJuvenile literature. I. Bohnhoff, Chris, illustrator. II.
Kissinger, Katie, 1951- All the colors we are. III. Kissinger, Katie, 1951- All the
colors we are. English. IV. Title. V. Title: Todos los colores de nuestra piel.
QP88.5.K47 2014
612.7927dc23
2013017560

People have many different colors of skin.
Even though we often say the words, He is black, or
She is white, all of us have skin that is a different
shade of brown.

La piel de las personas es de muchos colores diferentes.
Aunque a veces decimos, ella es negra, o l es blanco, todos
tenemos color de piel de un matiz entre el color tostado y castao.

What color is your skin?
What name would you like to
give the color of your skin?

De qu color es tu piel?
Qu nombre le daras
al color de tu piel?

See activity notes, page 30.
Ver notas de actividades, pgina 31.

How do you think we get our own special color of skin?
Can you make a guess?

Por qu crees que tenemos ese color en la piel?
Tienes alguna idea?

See activity note, page 30.
Ver nota de actividad, pgina 31.

We get our skin color in three different ways:

Tenemos ese color en la piel por tres razones distintas:

from our parents and from our
relatives who lived long ago,
called ancestors;

por nuestros padres y por unos
familiares que vivieron hace
muchsimo tiempo, llamados
antepasados;

from the sun;

por el sol;

and from
something
called melanin.

y por algo
llamado
melanina.

Melanin is tiny grains
of coloring in our skin.
We cant see the
tiny melanin grains,
but we all have melanin
in our skin.

En nuestra piel existen
pequesimos granos de un
colorante llamado melanina.
Los granitos de melanina
no se pueden ver a simple vista,
pero toda la gente tiene
melanina en la piel.

If you have dark skin,
the melanin in your
body is very active.
If you have light skin,
the melanin in your
body is not very busy.

Si tu piel es oscura,
es porque la melanina
de tu cuerpo es muy activa.
Si tu piel es clara, es porque
la melanina de tu cuerpo
no es muy activa.

See activity note, page 30.
Ver nota de actividad, pgina 31.

Freckles are spots on the skin
that have a lot of melanin.

Las pecas son manchas en
la piel que contienen
muchsima melanina.

No matter what color we are, our skin gets darker in the sun.
The more we are in the sun, the darker our skin will get.

Sea cual sea nuestro color, la piel se
oscurece cuando estamos al sol.
Cuanto ms tiempo estamos al sol, ms oscura
se nos pondr la piel.