The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
| The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Margaret Young
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| Summary: The perfect book for teaching older children their colours. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 40 | Date: August 2013 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0007513758 | |
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Longlisted for the 2014 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal
Duncan loves colouring but one day he receives a very surprising stack of letters from his crayons. Some are quite content, but others are really getting fed up. Red and Blue want a break, they get used far too much and are nearly worn away. Purple is delighted to be the colour of the wizards and dragons, but he is rather fussy about staying inside the lines. Black wants to colour in fun things like beach balls, and yellow and orange can't stop quarrelling over which should be the colour of the sun. Peach has had her wrapper peeled off and won't come out at all now, as she is embarrassed about being naked. Pink however is the most upset all. Duncan has never used Pink once. Pink wants to be something fun, like a dinosaur.
At age five, my son does know his colours already, but he still enjoyed this book, especially the arguing. My sons always love a loud argument in a book. He loved the pictures too, as we have always loved Oliver Jeffers' art work. His favourite part was looking through the picture Duncan has drawn at the end to see how Duncan has tried to fulfil each of the crayons' requests. It does seem as if Yellow has lost the argument since the sun is all orange, and my son did think Yellow had been forgotten about, but the sky is yellow. Beige doesn't seem to have earned much notice either, and we never do find out if Peach gets any clothes. I do feel this book would have been better if we could have seen how every crayon's request was worked into the picture, and I do feel this would have been a very easy task. Still, we did enjoy this book and I think it is a wonderful way to encourage creativity, and get children to try something different with art.
I think this books strong point though is in teaching colours without seeming to do so. While all children learn different skills at different ages, it can be a nightmare to find the right books for children who are learning just a little bit later than others. Many children do start school without knowing all of their colours. But the average book to teach colours is written for babies and toddlers. Nothing makes a child feel worse than being asked to read books they consider for babies, especially in front of others. This book reads like a story, and is quite suitable for young school children. But it does teach colours very effectively. But even if your child already knows their colours - this may just encourage them to look at things differently - and that is always a good thing. I've always loved things like blue horses, purple skies and green people. This just may encourage your child to experiment with colour as well.
If this book appeals then we can also recommend The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers and What's in the Fridge? by Gaby Goldsack and Jo Moon.
Editor's Note we've now seen The Day the Crayons Quit as a board book. It's nicely substantial and will stand a lot of toddler loving. Rounded corners will reduce injuries when it's used as a missile and the glossy pages will wipe down easily when the book is used as a substitute for washing hands. Perfect.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers at Amazon.com.
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