Day 216: The Day the Crayons Quit

Last weekend, I had the immense pleasure of browsing in a bookstore all by myself.  I immediately went to the children's section, of course, and spent over an hour picking books off the shelf and reading them at my leisure.  It was wonderful.  I had a gift card to this fabulous little independent bookstore, and I was eager to bring home a few new books for my kids.  I was tempted to get The Circus Ship and a few other titles that are on our "must own"list, but I decided instead to bring home a few fabulous books that we had never read or seen before.  I had heard about The Day the Crayons Quit, and knew as soon as I read it that my kids would absolutely love it.  I could hear my kids giggling as I sat reading this delightful story written by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, and couldn't wait to get home and read it to them.  It was as big a hit as I thought it would be!

In The Day the Crayons Quit, Duncan opens his box of crayons to color one day and is greeted by a pile of letters, one from each crayon.  Each crayon has taken a moment to tell Duncan how they really feel, and their personalities and voices are fantastic. Red is tired of never having holidays off, orange and yellow aren't speaking to each other because each is convinced he is the true color of the sun, and blue has been used so much he is too stubby to see over the railing of the crayon box anymore.  Black is sick of always being an outline -- is it too much to ask for a black beach ball sometime? -- gray is exhausted from always coloring huge animals like elephants and hippos and humpback whales, and peach crayon has lost all of his paper and is embarrassed to leave the box because he's naked!  Only green seems happy about coloring all of those dinosaurs and trees, though he can't wait for yellow and orange to finally settle their dispute.  All Duncan wants to do is color, but he wants his crayons to be happy.  What can he do?  The story has an adorable ending and I just love the creativity it inspires.  My husband and I enjoy reading it just as much as our children do, and we have yet to read it just once in a sitting.

If you're looking for a great, fun new story to read with your child, this one won't disappoint.  Teachers might find reading this story is a great way to introduce voice, point of view, and persuasion in children's writing, not to mention encouraging them to think outside the box with their art and creativity.  This story is definitely going to rank among our favorite books published in 2013, and I'm thrilled it now has a place in our home library.

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