Module 2 Book Blog 1: The Day the Crayons Quit

Module 2 Book Blog 1:  The Day the Crayons Quit by: Drew Daywalt, Pictures by: Oliver Jeffers

Book Cover Image: 

Book Summary:

One day, Duncan arrives at school to find a stack of letters from his crayons.  The crayons have decided to quit until Duncan is willing to meet their demands.  Each crayon has written Duncan a letter to let them know what it is they need from him.  Red wants a rest, gray wants to color smaller pictures, white needs to feel less empty, pink just wants to be used, and the list goes on.  Duncan must come up with a solution is he wants to draw any more pictures!

APA Reference of Book:

Daywalt, D. (2013). The day the crayons quit. New York, NY.  Philomel Books.

Impressions:

This book was a New York Times Bestseller for a reason.  It is creative, witty, and unique.  Children will love the humor and the distinctive characteristics each crayon brings to the story.  The illustrations are kid friendly and the story is captivating.  Teachers will love sharing this story with their students and readers of all ages can find something to enjoy in the book.

Professional Review:

School Library Review:

K-Gr 2—In this delightfully imaginative take on a beloved childhood activity, a young boy's crayons have had enough. Fed up with their workload and eager to voice their grievances, they pen letters to Duncan detailing their frustrations.

Energetic and off-the-wall, the complaints are always wildly funny, from the neurotically neat Purple ("If you DON'T START COLORING INSIDE the lines soon… I'm going to COMPLETELY LOSE IT") to the underappreciated White ("If I didn't have a black outline, you wouldn't even know I was THERE!"). Daywalt has an instinctive understanding of the kind of humor that will resonate with young children, such as Orange and Yellow duking it out over which of them represents the true color of the sun or Peach's lament that ever since its wrapper has fallen off, it feels naked. Though Jeffers's messily scrawled crayon illustrations are appropriately childlike, they're also infused with a sophisticated wit that perfectly accompanies the laugh-out-loud text; for example, a letter from Beige, in which he bemoans being tasked with drawing dull items like turkey dinners, is paired with an image of the crestfallen crayon drooping over beside a blade of wheat. Later on, Pink grumbles about constantly being passed over for less-feminine colors while the opposite page depicts a discomfited-looking pink monster and cowboy being derided by a similarly hued dinosaur. This colorful title should make for an uproarious storytime and may even inspire some equally creative art projects.—Mahnaz Dar, Library Journal

Source: Holland, A. (2013). The day the crayons quit. School Library Journal, 59 (7), 59.

Found Through: UNT Library Database – LexisNexis Academic

Link: http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2052/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=256569

Library Uses:

This book could be used in a variety of ways.  I saw a creative post on the discussion board about tying this book into a science lesson about how crayons are made.  In my response to this post, I mentioned that this would be a great tie in for me since science is part of our specials rotation.  I could see myself collaborating with our science teacher to coordinate a lesson.  In schools without a specific science teacher, the librarian could still incorporate the science aspect by collaborating with classroom teachers.

Also, the children could work on creating a picture using the demands the crayons in the story have given to Duncan.  This would allow them to show their creativity, while also showing their comprehension of the book in a more enjoyable way.   The Day the Crayons Quit certainly allows for endless opportunities to create, engaging and fun library lessons.