The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home

These are two of my favorite picture books, and were so popular with the elementary kids at my school. I think everyone loves the idea of crayons having their own personalities that go along with (or clash with!) their color.

I've shared booklove for these before: I read both books at a storytime for adults with disabilities, and The Day the Crayons Came Home was one of my favorite picture books of 2015.

When I saw these cute finger puppets from MerryMakers, I knew it was time to revisit these books! I love how innovative the storytelling is - the crayons speak out about being misused, neglected, and overused in The Day the Crayons Quit, and in The Day the Crayons Came Home, misplaced and forgotten crayons send funny "Wish You Were Here"-type postcards to their owner, inspiring him to find them under the rug, in the couch, and more.

In addition to the two classic (it's not too soon for them to be classics, right?) picture books, there are board books starring these famous crayons sounding off on colors and numbers. We love the number book because my son is starting to identify written numbers, and this book allows us to explore them in different ways. The number is written at the bottom of each page, next to crayons your kid can count. As each crayon is found, the number is spelled out. I love that it is written both ways, so your child can keep track of the crayons as you turn pages, and/or count the crayons at the bottom of each page.

I even found an instructional book that is a wonderful resource for expanding these books into a lesson. There are vocabulary lists and reading response pages for older children, and pages that help children identify emotions (theirs and the crayons!) and animal colors for younger kids. That's not even scratching the surface of what this book offers - I highly recommend it if you're interested in exploring this book with your kids, students, or plan to adapt some activities for a storytime audience.


Have you read these engaging books? Do you have a favorite book? Do you have a favorite crayon?! Share your thoughts and activity ideas in the comments!

Imaginary Friends

I think today was my favorite storytime I've had with SRVS! The theme was "imaginary friends" - we've all had them, and some of us still do! We talked about that for a few minutes, and then I read Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. The class remembered Oliver Jeffers from other programs, like when we read The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home. They also remembered that we read The Incredible Book Eating Boy at the first storytime! I love Imaginary Fred so much, I made a rave review video about it for A Book A Minute.

Next I showed them the Beekle cover, and then took off the dust jacket. The room seriously gasped! This is the most beautiful book I've ever seen. The gorgeous cover made the class eager to read the book.


I lucked out one day at Bargain Hunt and found this cool "Padzooks!" book for two bucks; it has 36 little paper bobbleheads that you can fold up and accessorize. I thought it would be perfect for this program because we could make our own "unimaginary" friends like Beekle and Fred. Everyone loved picking what character they wanted to fold and accessorize; some people even made more than one!


I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

Favorite Picture Books of 2015

We're getting ready to wrap up 2015, and my son and I wanted to share some of our favorite pictures books that came out this year!
Imaginary Fred is a sweet book about how much imaginary friends can really mean to a child. After being forgotten and re-imagined by many children, Fred is worried he'll never find a true friend. The illustrations in the book are simple, but beautiful, true to Oliver Jeffers' style. Check out more about this book in my short review: A BOOK A MINUTE.

Red is a funny yet meaningful book about being true to yourself. Red is a blue crayon trapped in a red wrapper. Everyone treats him like he's red, yet every strawberry he draws looks like a strange blueberry. When he tries to mix with yellow to make orange, they get a very different result. My son loved this book for the colorful illustrations, and I loved the sly jokes slipped in with the colors' names.

The Day the Crayons Came Home is yet another book starring colorful crayons! This book is the follow-up to the wildly popular The Day the Crayons Quit, by the same author-illustrator duo. In the second installment, the crayons send postcards from destinations where they have been left behind. Pea Green Esteban is sure to charm readers of all ages. My son loved this book (again) for the color illustrations, I loved it because it was really witty, and the group of adults with disabilities I read it to loved guessing which color wrote what.

Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise is a book I've posted about before because I really love it. Hoot Owl is hungry for dinner, but he can't catch any food. He tries disguising himself as a carrot to catch a rabbit...will it work? This is another book I loved because the ending was so clever, it genuinely made me laugh out loud. My son seems to love the animals' big eyes and the repetitive rhyme of Hoot Owl's quest.

Edmund Unravels is a very cute story about Edmund, a ball of yarn who loves to explore. Edmund pushes his limits, going further and further and unraveling with each new exploration. The illustrations are bold and adorable, which pleased both my son and me!


Read them for yourself!
Colfer, Eoin. Imaginary Fred. Illus. Oliver Jeffers. New York: HarperCollins, 2015. Print.
Hall, Michael. Red. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2015. Print.
Daywalt, Drew. The Day the Crayons Came Home. Illus. Oliver Jeffers. New York: Philomel Books, 2015. Print.
Taylor, Sean. Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise. Illus. Jean Jullien. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2015. Print.
Kolb, Andrew. Edmund Unravels. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015. Print.

The Day the Crayons Storytime

Today was my second time holding a library program for adults with disabilities! Two classes from SRVS came for a colorful storytime! I read The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.

I made the books a little more interactive by letting the individuals call out what color was writing the letter based on the illustrations. In the second book, they had fun trying to remember what color crayon had renamed himself "Esteban"!

For the craft, individuals colored their own bookmarks with an assortment of crayons, trying to use them all equally so none would get mad and quit! Check out these beautiful bookmarks!

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

My First Storytime with SRVS!

The backstory behind my library program for adults with disabilities is explained here.
Two weeks ago today, on August 13, 2015, I held my first library program for two classes of adults with disabilities from SRVS! I was pretty nervous because my experience of reading aloud is limited to my one-year-old. I picked two books I really loved because I knew I'd be comfortable reading them aloud. Bonus: both books are really funny, so I knew my audience would be laughing!

I started with The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers, then read Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jean Jullien. The craft was to make Hoot Owl pencil toppers out of construction paper. I pre-cut all the pieces for the owl because we have a little less than an hour for this program. The individuals glued them together, then taped the owl to their pencil. A SRVS teacher and I took requests from the individuals and we made disguises for each owl! See the super cool spy glasses pictured above.

This program was so much fun to lead, and I'm excited to continue it every month. I can't wait to see how it grows and develops into more!