The Day The Crayons Came Home

Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers have collaborated on a sequel to their #1 bestseller, The Day The Crayons Quit!: The Day The Crayons Came Home.

Sometime after showing his crayons that he could use them more creatively, Duncan receives a stack of postcards in the mail. The Maroon crayon sent a postcard from the couch. Two years ago, Duncan's dad sat on him and broke him in two. Paperclip saved him and now he is ready to return to Duncan's crayon box.

 Pea Green informed Duncan that since no one likes peas or the color of peas, he has renamed himself Esteban the Magnificent and he is running away to see the world. He sends two more postcards, one asking Duncan to open the front door so he can see the world and another to inform him that he is returning because the world is rainy.

 Neon Red was left behind at the hotel when the family came home from vacation. She is planning on walking home. She sends two more postcards, one from a place with camels and pyramids and another with snow and skis.

Tan crayon (or was he Burnt Sienna?) was eaten by the dog, then puked up on the living room rug. He is now more carpet fuzz than crayon.

 Duncan also hears from Glow in the Dark crayon, Gold crayon, Turquoise crayon, Brown crayon and Chunky Toddler crayon each asking to be rescued. Duncan gathers the neglected, forgotten and damaged crayons and builds a place where each crayon will feel at home.

Kids will love the artwork and story, it irreverent and funny.

The AR is 3.3. The Sonoma County Library has twenty-two copies.

The Day The Crayons Quit

The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers has been getting lots of buzz. This is another great collaboration between author and illustrator. Duncan wants to color but instead of finding his box of crayons, he finds a stack of letters. Each letter is from a color  complaining about it is used. Red, Grey and Blue feel overworked, Pink complains that it is not used at all and Black wants to do something besides outlines. Purple is not happy that Duncan does not color in the lines. Beige is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown and Orange and Yellow are having a disagreement over which one of them is the color of the sun. White is unhappy that it doesn’t show up on white paper and Peach feels naked because Duncan has torn off its paper. Each colors’ letter is written in the appropriate color crayon a wide variety of papers you’d find at home or in the classroom.

 

Duncan wants to color and wants his crayons to be happy so he takes his crayons criticism to heart and colors a picture that gets him an A for coloring and an A+ for creativity. Duncan’s picture reminds me of one of my favorite Eric Carle books, The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse which is dedicated to German expressionist painter, Franz Marc. 

The Sonoma County Library has a few copies. The AR level is 3.8.