The Day the Crayons Quit

( 6 )

Overview

Crayons have feelings, too, in this funny back-to-school story illustrated by the creator of Stuck and This Moose Belongs to Me

Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: His crayons have had enough! They quit! Beige Crayon is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown Crayon. Black wants to be used for more than just outlining. Blue needs a break from coloring all those bodies of water. ...

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More About This Book

Overview

Crayons have feelings, too, in this funny back-to-school story illustrated by the creator of Stuck and This Moose Belongs to Me

Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: His crayons have had enough! They quit! Beige Crayon is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown Crayon. Black wants to be used for more than just outlining. Blue needs a break from coloring all those bodies of water. And Orange and Yellow are no longer speaking—each believes he is the true color of the sun.

What can Duncan possibly do to appease all of the crayons and get them back to doing what they do best?
Kids will be imagining their own humorous conversations with crayons and coloring a blue streak after sharing laughs with Drew Daywalt and New York Times bestseller Oliver Jeffers. This story is perfect as a back-to-school gift, for all budding artists, for fans of humorous books such as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith, and for fans of Oliver Jeffers' Stuck, The Incredibly Book Eating Boy, Lost and Found, and This Moose Belongs to Me.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Clearly, Duncan's crayons had had enough. When he opened his art box that day, he found not a single crayon, only letters from disgruntled color sticks. Their complaints were various: Some felt overused or misused; others, neglected. Blue, for example, wondered how many oceans he would be obliged to color and Beige despaired that all the good jobs were going to Brown. For poor Duncan, this spontaneous strike called for quick action. Almost instantly, the aspiring artist becomes a mediator. A very entertaining picture book from debut author Drew Daywalt and illustrator Oliver Jeffers (This Moose Belongs to Me; Stuck).

Publishers Weekly
Although the crayons in this inventive catalogue stop short of quitting, most feel disgruntled. The rank and file express their views in letters written to a boy, Duncan. Red complains of having to “work harder than any of your other crayons” on fire trucks and Santas; a beige crayon declares, “I’m tired of being called ‘light brown’ or ‘dark tan’ because I am neither.” White feels “empty” from Duncan’s white-on-white coloring, and a “naked” Peach wails, “Why did you peel off my paper wrapping?” Making a noteworthy debut, Daywalt composes droll missives that express aggravation and aim to persuade, while Jeffers’s (This Moose Belongs to Me) crayoned images underscore the waxy cylinders’ sentiments: each spread features a facsimile of a letter scrawled, naturally, in the crayon’s hue; a facing illustration evidences how Duncan uses the crayon, as in a picture of a giant elephant, rhino, and hippo (Gray laments, “That’s a lot of space to color in all by myself”). These memorable personalities will leave readers glancing apprehensively at their own crayon boxes. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Jeff Dwyer, Dwyer & O’Grady. (June)
School Library Journal
K-Gr 2—In this delightfully imaginative take on a beloved childhood activity, a young boy's crayons have had enough. Fed up with their workload and eager to voice their grievances, they pen letters to Duncan detailing their frustrations. Energetic and off-the-wall, the complaints are always wildly funny, from the neurotically neat Purple ("If you DON'T START COLORING INSIDE the lines soon… I'm going to COMPLETELY LOSE IT") to the underappreciated White ("If I didn't have a black outline, you wouldn't even know I was THERE!"). Daywalt has an instinctive understanding of the kind of humor that will resonate with young children, such as Orange and Yellow duking it out over which of them represents the true color of the sun or Peach's lament that ever since its wrapper has fallen off, it feels naked. Though Jeffers's messily scrawled crayon illustrations are appropriately childlike, they're also infused with a sophisticated wit that perfectly accompanies the laugh-out-loud text; for example, a letter from Beige, in which he bemoans being tasked with drawing dull items like turkey dinners, is paired with an image of the crestfallen crayon drooping over beside a blade of wheat. Later on, Pink grumbles about constantly being passed over for less-feminine colors while the opposite page depicts a discomfited-looking pink monster and cowboy being derided by a similarly hued dinosaur. This colorful title should make for an uproarious storytime and may even inspire some equally creative art projects.—Mahnaz Dar, Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons' demands in this humorous tale. Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He's naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan's "white cat in the snow" perfectly capture the crayons' conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale's overall believability. A comical, fresh look at crayons and color. (Picture book. 3-7)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780399255373
  • Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
  • Publication date: 6/27/2013
  • Pages: 40
  • Sales rank: 23
  • Age range: 3 - 7 Years
  • Product dimensions: 10.28 (w) x 9.82 (h) x 0.53 (d)

Meet the Author

Drew Daywalt

Although Drew Daywalt grew up in a haunted house, he now lives in a Southern California home, haunted by only his wife, two kids, and five-month-old German Shepherd. His favorite crayon is Black.

 Oliver Jeffers (www.oliverjeffersworld.com) makes art and tells stories. His books include How to Catch a Star; Lost and Found, which was the recipient of the prestigious Nestle Children’s Book Prize Gold Award in the U.K. and was later adapted into an award-winning animated film; The Way Back Home; The Incredible Book Eating Boy; The Great Paper Caper; The Heart and the Bottle, which was made into a highly acclaimed iPad application narrated by Helena Bonham Carter; Up and Down, the New York Times bestselling Stuck; The Hueys in the New Sweater, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year; and This Moose Belongs to Me, a New York Times bestseller. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oliver now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
 

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 6 )
Rating Distribution

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  • Posted Fri Jun 28 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    more from this reviewer

    Love this children's story and will use this story as a entering

    Love this children's story and will use this story as a entering text for writing personification narratives from the crayon's pov.  Good story for teaching mood words as well.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Thu Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    A new FAVORITE children's book! So CUTE! So AMAZING! So WONDERFU

    A new FAVORITE children's book!
    So CUTE!
    So AMAZING!
    So WONDERFUL!
    So NEED TO READ!

    Duncan just wants to color...
    But when he opens the crayon box they have some news for him!

    CUTE CUTE ending as Duncan finds a way to handle 'the day the crayons quit.'

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I love this book!  It is so cute.  My son was belly laughing.  H

    I love this book!  It is so cute.  My son was belly laughing.  He insisted on taking it to school the next day to share with his class!  Try different voices for different crayons!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Jul 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    This book is LAUGH OUT LOUD funny! Duncan's crayons have complai

    This book is LAUGH OUT LOUD funny! Duncan's crayons have complaints which they convey in a series of letters. What makes it so funny is that it's so true. I can imagine each color crayon really having these complaints. Red and blue ARE overworked, pink probably IS ignored by a boy, and beige is right - "when was the last time you saw a kid excited about coloring wheat?" Debut Author Drew Daywalt hits this one WAY out of the park with some of the most clever, touching and hilarious text I've ever seen in a children's book. Jeffers delivers again with his sophisticated, yet minimalist art. Awesome book!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Jul 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

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