Early readers · ages 4–7

The Day the Crayons Quit

The crayons have written letters. They are not happy.

The Day the Crayons Quit — Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins). Ages 4–8.

Duncan opens his box to find a stack of letters of complaint. Beige is tired of coming second to brown. Pink is barely used. Grey is exhausted by elephants.

Each crayon gets a whole personality in roughly one sentence, which is far harder than it looks, and Jeffers draws the whole thing in deliberately childlike crayon.

The catch — it's a format rather than a story. There's no arc, and a child who wants somewhere to go will drift.

Nothing much happens, and children reread it anyway. The voices carry it.

Get the full guide: The Picture Book Years →

Cover: The Day the Crayons Quit · Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers · HarperCollins Children's Books