Romana Romanyshyn - Sight: Glimmer, Glow, SPARK, FLASH!

The publisher would like to acknowledge with thanks Catherine Karp for her thorough and thought-provoking fact-checking of the manuscript.

Illustrations copyright 2017 by Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva Ltd.
Translation by Vitaly Chernetsky 2017, 2021 Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva Ltd.

First published in the United States of America in 2021 by Chronicle Books LLC.
Originally published in Ukrainian in 2017 under the title by Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva Ltd. (The Old Lion Publishing House).

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-4521-7977-3 (hc), 978-1-7972-0447-5 (epub2), 978-1-7972-0449-9 (epub3), 978-1-7972-0448-2 (Kindle)

English language edition design by Lydia Ortiz.

A Handprint Book
Handprint Books is an imprint of Chronicle Books LLC, 680 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94107

Chronicle Bookswe see things differently.
Become part of our community at www.chroniclekids.com .

At first it was dark, you could not see anything.

We can see thanks to light. Reflecting off objects around us, light gets into our eyes and then our brain transforms it into visual images.

And then light appeared. *

Some scientists believe that for a few days after birth our picture of the world is fuzzy and turned upside down. Later our brain learns to turn the image it receives right side up.

Eye color depends on the coloring of the eyes iris and specifically from it containing a pigment called melanin.

The iris, like fingerprints, is unique. Iris scans are used for identification.

A new day begins. I open my eyes and see.

So many interesting things in my field of vision.

In approximately 1% of people, each eye is a different color.

The rarest eye color is green: Only about 2% of people on our planet have green eyes.

Sight is the most important sense in many cultures. About half of the cerebral cortex works on processing the information we receive thanks to sight.

The eye chart tests visual acuity.

The ophthalmologist is a doctor who knows everything about our eyes and vision.

The visible light, passing through the lens, focuses on the retina and forms an upside-down image, and our brain processes it and turns it right side up.

My eyes are a delicate and complex mechanism. They notice the tiniest details and show me the big picture of the world.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROYGBIV) are the colors of the spectrum most people see when looking at the rainbow.

There are three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue; they cannot be made out of other colors. By mixing these colors, we get the secondary ones: orange, violet, green.

Besides spectral colors, countless other hues exist. They are often referred to by these common names:

Orange, violet, green, snow, coal, cream, beige, ochre, lemon, peach, saffron, cadmium, yellow, gold, burnt orange, carrot, sand, powder, pink, buttermilk, apricot, salmon, coral, vermilion, carmine, bordeaux, burgundy, aquamarine, mint, cerulean, verdigris, turquoise, teal, ultramarine, cobalt blue, cornflower blue, azure, cherry blossom, pink, rose, strawberry, pink flamingo, raspberry, titian, fuchsia, cardinal, magenta, umber, ivory, champagne, cappuccino, taupe, chamois, terracotta, cocoa, chocolate, sepia, bistre, lime, sage, chartreuse, pistachio, olive, emerald, jade, forest, khaki, hunter, periwinkle, lavender, lilac, orchid, violet, amethyst, plum, eggplant, iris, indigo.

The human eye is capable of distinguishing about 7 million variations of color. On average, a person can see several hundred thousand hues. Some people, such as visual artists are often particularly sensitive and can see several million hues.

Colors can appear to influence our emotions. They can make us happy or sad, calm us, or even make us hungry. For some, yellow and orange increase their appetite. Red attracts attention and warns about danger. Blue provides a feeling of harmony and safety, and green is associated with nature and health.

The condition when a person cannot perceive or distinguish one or more colors is called color blindness or Daltonism.

It is impossible to count all the colors, hues, and tints my eyes can see!

The first mirrors were made of silver, copper, or bronze as far back as the 3rd to 1st millennium B.C.E. The surface of such mirrors was produced by polishing for a long time, but it gradually darkened and lost the capacity to reflect.

I see myself in the mirror. I study my face carefully and know its tiniest details.

Later, people learned to make mirrors out of glass, adding to its surface a thin layer of metallead, tin, or even silver and gold.