Today, I am doing a fun little post on a book. There are three things in this world that I absolutely adore, if you don't count my nephew and I absolutely adore him no question. I also adore coffee, books and food in no particular order. When I was given a chance to become a book blogger for Penguin Canada I decided to give it a try. I thought about reviewing a cookbook, but I did not have the time to cook my tried and true, let alone anything new, so it did not seem like a good idea to attempt first. So I went to the next best thing; a children's book. I am a teacher and it seemed like a natural fit. Penguin Canada has the December Delights promotion on right now and it is basically an advent calendar for book lovers, full of suggestions and contests for bibliophiles such as myself. Today is day #10 and it is The Day the Crayons Quit.
Drew Daywalt poses an interesting dilemma when he suggests that the crayons are not happy with Duncan, their owner. I read this book last night and I could not help but giggle for many reasons and I cannot wait to share this book with my nephew. I know he will love the green page. But I digress. Every year I put a big box of crayons on my desk along with markers and pencil crayons for my students to use and inevitably the crayons are passed over, because junior high students are too cool for crayons. I always feel sad because I love crayons! There is something about them and maybe it is nostalgia more than anything and the fact that they take me back to a time of innocence. I find crayons comforting and I was taught a long time ago that sitting and colouring is one of the greatest stress reducers because of the nostalgia involved. Unfortunately, it is the crayons in this book that are stressed out. All they want is to be used equally without having favourites played. When you think about it though; do we use all the crayons in the box? Sadly, no. However, Duncan comes up with an ingenious idea of how to keep everyone happy.
I like how Daywalt addresses all the problems individually and uses each colour to write the letter. The only problem I had was with yellow (but don't tell yellow crayon that). It was hard to read. Oliver Jeffers drawings combined with the letters were a perfect fit. I enjoy Oliver Jeffers illustrations. I first noticed his illustrations in a book that I gave my nephew for his birthday, How to Catch a Star. His illustrations are simple, yet powerful, and they recreate that sense of nostalgia by looking like a child has drawn the illustrations which fit perfectly with Daywalt's crayon dilemma as the crayons are trying to tell Duncan what it is that they need in order to be happy.
I cannot wait to share this book with my nephew and I am not sure if I will give him this copy of the book for Christmas or buy him his own copy and keep this one for myself. Sometimes we need a good children's story in our life to put our own lives into perspective and recapture some of the innocence lost with maturity. I think I need to go and buy myself a new box of crayons soon. ;) Hopefully I will be able to keep them all happy like Duncan finally does in the end. I love this book and hope that there will be a French translation of it soon, so that I can share it with my junior high students even though they are too cool for crayons. ;)
