The Day the Crayons Quit

Bibliography: Daywalt, D., & Jeffers, O. (2015). The Day the Crayons Quit. New York, NY: Philomel Books.

Book Summary: One day the crayons decided to quit on Duncan. They wrote letters explaining how unused, overused, and wrongly used they felt. They felt overworked and needed a break. All colors were frustrated. Beige explained how he usually gets misnamed, purple doesn’t like to color outside the lines, gray gets used too much, white feels sad because he is rarely used, and so on. After Duncan read all the letters from the crayons, he understood each color’s point of view and so he decides to create a picture using all colors in different perspectives so that his colors can feel happy again.

Critical Analysis: This book is great to help readers think outside the box, whether students read the book themselves or they are read to. It is suitable for many ages.  We usually have a certain mindset as to how things are supposed to be, yellow sun, pink flamingo, blue sky, etc. because that is the reality of things. This book encourages its readers to use their imaginations and stop and think about being bias.  For example, why should a boy’s shirt be blue? Why can’t it be purple? This book also helps readers appreciate things they have and learn to take care of them better.