Pictures by Oliver Jeffers
Philomel Books 2013
The Day the Crayons Quit follows the story of a young boy named Duncan who goes to use his crayons only to find notes written by each of his crayons explaining that they have quit. Each crayon has a different explanation. Some are overused and others are never used. Duncan must figure out how to make his crayons happy again. Oliver Jeffers does an excellent job by providing realistic drawings that look like they came right from a child. Each page contains a note that is written in the color of crayon that is talking, along with a picture drawn by that crayon. The illustrations are sure to get children's attention with their vibrant colors!
The book is a great read aloud for young children. The language might be difficult for emergent readers, but older Elementary students would have fun reading this book out loud to a partner.
The Day the Crayons Quit has a lot of potential for classroom use. I used this book to teach a writing lesson to First Graders. After reading the story out loud, the students wrote apology notes to one of their crayons align with a colorful picture to make their crayons happy. The first graders loved it!
Daywalt, D., & Jeffers, O. (2013). The day the crayons quit.
