“The Battle Lines Have Been Drawn.”
Book Summary:
Duncan has a box of crayons and one day Duncan went to get them out. Instead of his crayons was a stack of letters from his crayons. Each had a different thing to say. The first crayon to write was the red crayon. He was upset because he is very overworked. Purple crayon wrote next and he did not like being colored outside the lines because he is a very neat crayon. Beige does not like being called light brown or dark tan. He also wants to be something that isn’t wheat because no kid is excited about wheat. Gray is overtired from always being used for such big animals like elephants and rhinos. White crayons wants to be used for something besides snow and filling in space. Black crayon wants to be used for something besides an outline. Green is as happy as can be! Orange and Yellow are having an argument about who is the real color of the sun. Blue loves being Duncan’s favorite color but he is almost gone and needs a break. Pink just wants to be used. Peach wants to have some clothing. Duncan wanted to color, bu he wants to make his crayons happy. So he created a whole new picture.
APA Reference:
Daywalt, D., & Jeffers, O. (2016). The day the crayons quit. London: HarperCollins Children’s Books.
Impressions:
This book is absolutely adorable. I love that each letter is written in a child’s handwriting. I also love the illustrations and how each crayon is drawn to show their emotions. I like the fact that each crayons have a different emotions and feelings. This book allows children to see those different feelings in a fun way, but it shows them how they can express themselves through the written form. Overall, this book was so much fun. I am totally going to read it to my 7th graders.
Professional Review:
Booklist starred (August 2015 (Vol. 111, No. 22))
Preschool-Grade 2. The crayons are back! Well, not all of them. Some of them are scattered hither and yon, and although they’d certainly like to return to Duncan, they’ll need his help for that. Happily, all have had access to postcards, which arrive for the boy in a single packet. These cards aren’t of the “wish-you-were-here” variety. See, Maroon Crayon has been lost under the couch since Duncan’s dad sat on him and broke him in half. Tan Crayon was eaten by the dog and puked up on the rug. Neon Red, whose star turn was when she depicted sunburn, was left behind on vacation. Only one crayon wants out, not back in: Pea Green, who realizes everyone hates his color, wants to escape to see the world. (Also, he is changing his name to Esteban the Magnificent.) A masterwork of humor and design, this has charmingly realistic postcards facing clever depictions of each crayon’s plight: Turquoise stuck to a sock (after a ride in the dryer), Brown morose after having been used to draw bear poop, and so forth. The reunion of the crayons leads to a wonderfully imaginative final spread, in which cardboard boxes provide an apartment complex of new homes. Sure to be as popular as The Day the Crayons Quit (2013). Whatever will they do next? HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The first book was a bit of a blockbuster, and there’s no reason the crayons won’t continue to color their own paths to glory.
[Review of the book The day the crayons quit, by Drew Dewalt]. (2015, August). Booklist, 111, 22. Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com
Library Uses:
This book would be cool to use with the media class. Students could pick a different color and memorize the monologue. Then the students could videotape the monologues and edit them into one video that would be shown to the rest of the school.
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