A little boy finds a stack of letters from his personified crayons. They each have a complaint. Some are tired of being over-used and worn down to stubs, others feel neglected. Yellow and orange argue over who should be used to color the sun, beige is unhappy at being second-best to brown, pink is upset at being considered a "girl" color (relegated to little sister borrowing it for princesses and unicorns), black is bored with only being used to make outlines. One crayon even criticizes the boy's ineptness at staying in the lines, and another freaks out because part of its wrapper is torn off and it feels naked. They really are a whiny bunch (except for green who seems content) but I got a chuckle out of it all- and thought it a good point that the crayons' complaints were about stereotypical uses. In the end the boy makes one big picture applying the crayon colors to all kinds of different things, which makes them happy.
I thought the book was funny, made a good point against stereotypes (even if it's just for what color things should be) and showed how when the crayons made their feelings known, things changed. I think my older daughter would be amused by it. I haven't tried it on my younger one. However, if you poke around some other reviews online (there's lots on amzn) you'll find many parents and teachers don't like this book. They think it shows kids that whining gets them what they want, and comes across with a lot of negativity. I think it's all in how you present it (or maybe on the child you read it to).
Rating: 3/5 40 pages, 2013
more opinions:
Rhapsody in Books
Playing by the Book
This book looks adorable to me!
ReplyDeleteWhat? I love this book! It's hilarious, and I always love letters in books.
ReplyDeleteThis is a favorite in our house, along with the sequel. I hadn't heard the criticism about it coming across as whining. I didn't take it that way at all.
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