Best Books: The Day the Crayons Quit

A mystery unfolded in our home 2 weeks ago… One evening as the girls nibbled away at dinner I peeked outside the front door to see a large parcel from Amazon. I carried the box inside and opened it up to find a book inside called The Day the Crayons Quit and there with the book was a mysterious note.

Notice who the gift was “from”. We wondered, who could this Eenju Kang be? And why was he/she sending us a book? (In the far recesses of my muddled mind I vaguely remembered someone telling me about this book but alas I couldn’t recall who it was???) Being that I am a “blogger” who often reviews books and products I wondered if Eenju Kang was a pr person seeking my opinion of said book? I pondered that perhaps two other little girls named Emma and Sophie Pless lived somewhere else in this big round world and maybe this Eenju Kang had googled their address and accidentally found our address and had sent the book intended for two other sisters named Emma and Sophie to us. Good grief!

We then decided we’d attempt to solve the mystery. 1) We told Daddy. No help. 2) We took the book to both Emma and Sophie’s schools and inquired to see if any of their teachers or classmates could solve this mystery. No such luck. After a week of wondering  – we gave up. We gave up the search but continued to marvel at the mystery each time we read the book. The book was read MANY times. Each time Emma plucked it off the shelf she jittered with curiosity. “Mama let’s read the crayon book again and whoooooo do you think Eenju Kang issssssssss?” And then the mystery was miraculously solved!!!! After two weeks of wondering I got this text from my sister in law. I was clearly (note the excessive use of exclamation marks!) thrilled to finally have an answer.

And now we know the answer. Mystery solved. My sweet and generous sister-in-law and adorable niece sent this fabulous book to the girls. It has fast become one of our favorite books. It’s a magical story about a box of crayons that starts to communicate with their owner by way of crayon-written correspondence. Each crayon has a particular bone to pick with their owner, sweet little Duncan. Some are tired of not being used to color inside the lines while others are looking for Duncan to clarify what he feels is the true color of the sun (SPOILER ALERT: Orange and Yellow really go at it!). It is quite hysterical – for readers young and old.It all starts with a stack of letters sent to young Duncan from his crayons.

Black begs to be used for anything other than tracing outlines. A black beach ball or rainbow perhaps? Look at his sweet little clasped hands. How could you not want to help?

Oh my goodness do we get a good chuckle when that naked little peach crayon appears on the scene. Peach is mortified by her lack of underwear and refuses to leave the box. Sophie was a crayon peeler so this one in particular really resonates with us.

Purple Crayon threatens to “completely lose it” if Duncan doesn’t work on coloring in the lines. Oh Purple. I feel your pain. If only more people colored inside the lines…

And in the end our brave hero figures out how to appease the crayons… He creates a truly beautiful work of art by listening to the crayons, meeting their needs, and “thinking outside the box”. And with that peace is restored to the Crayon Universe.

Gosh do I love this book. We laugh, we wonder, and we even consider using colors other than pink and purple every now and then just to make sure we are giving all the other crayon colors a fair shake. Awesome learning tool on many fronts.

**This fabulous book is a favorite of many. Head on over to my dear friend and fabulous interior designer Amy Hirsch’s blog to read what she had to say about the book earlier this week. She has some other great books for children featured as well. I love that she blogged about the National Education Association’s annual Read Across America Day. Nice work Amy. Reading is cool!