Illustrating Childrens books

When I began to illustrate my children’s book I used bright colors, but after much research I found this to be a horrible idea. What do these colors mean? How do they relate to the story? I had to stop and ask myself. The background colors in the top picture are light, cool tones the sky is a bit grey/blue. The picture below is the very last picture of the children’s book. It is the brightest page of the entire book. The colors seem to be so full of life. There is a reason for these color choices. When you see a character at the beginning of a book and the sky is grey/blue and the colors are dull. Then as the character reaches the end of the book the colors are amped up, bright blue sky’s with bright green grass, shows the progression and potential growth of a character.