The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Released in June of 2013, The Day the Crayons Quit, Drew Daywalt’s first book became an instant hit with parents and kids alike. It even got on the New York Times’ Best Seller’s List that same month. Maybe it was destined, because apparently Daywalt used to write for Disney and Universal Studios for some of their animated shows. So, the guy already knew how to entertain a kid or two.
As the title suggests, the book is about anthropomorphic crayons, each with their own distinct and hilarious personalities, who all decide they’ve got some issues with their crayon box holder, Duncan. They all get together and write letters to the young man to make him aware of their colored displeasure.
Each crayon color has their own letter of complaint for their young owner/artist. And the crayons’ personalities come out by what they write in and how they write each letter. For example, the purple crayon likes to be very neat, so he doesn’t appreciate that Duncan colors outside the lines. But it’s also a prim and proper crayon, so it is rather polite as it complains. Then, there’s white crayon who appears to be having an existential crisis about not being seen, but it makes a good point–you can’t see white crayon without another crayon, usually black, outlining it. But this dilemma is immediately followed by black crayon’s problem: it’s only being used to make outlines for other colors!
The imagery is very well thought out. On the left side of each double-page spread, is a letter written by a crayon, and on the right side are pictures drawn by Duncan with the crayon color. For example…
I found the book funny with great use of imagery. The disgruntled crayons’ rhetoric make for a great read-along. With that, Mrs. Udderbutter stamps her Hoof of Approval!
Have fun reading!