The Day the Crayons Came Home

By Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

For all young readers who relished the reading of “The Day the Crayons Quit” and realized that crayons, like humans, have rich interior lives – and feelings, here is the follow up picture book called, “The Day the Crayons Came Home.”

Those put upon colors are at it again, and as the special seal on the cover conveys, this companion edition to the original crayon complainers, “contains a special Glow in the Dark drawing.” Fun!

Well, a plethora of postcards are heading young Duncan’s way from each of the ill treated crayons that are either flung here or there or left in the lurch.

Maroon is a great fall color featured in fashion mags everywhere, so even Maroon Crayon whose mournful story, of being lost beneath the cushions of the couch, and taped and paper clipped together, should be assuaged from high dudgeon – for a bit! Adding insult to injury, Maroon was even sat upon and broken – hence the tape and paper clip.

And it goes on from there, in a cacophony of crayon calamity, written on a series of post cards mailed to young Duncan, the owner of the crayon cavilers in “The Day the Crayons Quit.”

Woe-be-tide the unsympathetic soul who is not in sync with Turquoise, (another very popular color this summer), whose head is stuck in a less than sweet-smelling sock, and unceremoniously tossed in a dryer. Crayon crisis upon crisis is the order of the day. The crayons feel much wronged and it is up to readers to listen and perhaps, help Duncan find a remedy.

It’s a hoot and a half for kids that may never treat crayons in a cavalier way again. They have lives and feelings as their users do and they are not mere implements at the end of someone’s finger tips to fill inside the lines of a picture or create color at their owner’s whim.

It’s funny, but the more that I think about it, it’s not too much of a stretch from kindness to an inanimate object to kindness to an animate one.

Lesson 1 Crayons have feelings that are to be respected, and not to be taken for granted.

 

Lesson 2 So do people.

Good learning arc here!

Young readers and adults will sympathize, and even chuckle, at this host of harried happenings that befall a crayon left behind at a resort. Neon Red is here ignominiously cast aside after being used to color Dad a lobster red after contacting a sunburn.

Orange and Yellow are “melting, melting” akin to that Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz”, but it’s not water that melts them, but a prolonged dose of being left out in the sun.

Burnt Umber! Ah, the very name conjures memories from my own childhood of coloring. And I found myself as worked up as the crayon as he details his being scarfed as a snack – and then upchucked. Kids love the yucky in case you’ve forgotten.

Will this litany of low treatment end with no resolve? Will appreciation of crayons reign again? Might they again be resigned to a mere crayon box? Or is something grander in the works?

For any Baby Boomer parent or grandparent that recalls whiling away an afternoon building a fort from a conglomeration of cardboard shoe boxes, the conclusion of mending hurts by  constructing crayon comfort in condo fashion is very satisfying.

Side deck and rooftop viewing station are included.

This sequel to “The Day the Crayons Quit” makes nice with put upon crayons, and readers of all ages will love it!