Children's Picture Book - The Day the Crayons Quit, Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers (Ill.)

 

The Day the Crayons Quit

 

Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers (Ill.)

Category: Children’s Picture Book

Synopsis: Duncan’s crayons go on strike, and each writes him a letter to make their displeasure known.

Rating: ** (3-star scale)

Comments:

It’s too bad Amazon doesn’t give an excerpt of this one. I think a lot of kids (and parents) would like to see the illustrations.

Each of little Duncan’s crayons has a gripe (well, except for good-natured Green). Red and Blue are overused. Pink is underused. Yellow and Orange need someone to settle their dispute over who should color the sun. They write out their letters of grievance and leave them in the crayon box. Each page shows a letter and artwork illustrating the various annoyances. The pictures are cute and are drawn to look like a child’s artwork.

I have to admit that when I read this book, I sort of didn’t like it. I don’t like picture books that focus on negativity. I don’t like to teach kids to complain.

Am I taking a picture book to seriously? Maybe. Some took it far more seriously:

Do I think it’s about racial prejudice? No.

Unionizing? No.

Did it bother me that Duncan got graded on his coloring at the end? No. (But I did think it was kind of weird. Do they grade coloring in kindergarten? Would a four-year-old even know what an A+ meant?)

Did it bother me that pink was a “girls’ color”? No.

So, overall, it was a good book, but I didn’t go ape over it like a lot of folks did. It was average, longish, and my grandson had fun reading it.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

I think so.