Cast your mind back a couple of years to September 2013 when we reviewed a wonderfully original and hilarious book all about the denizens living in your art supply drawer. In "The Day the Crayons Quit", a hardy and colourful crew of crayons campaigned for a better life, writing letters to their owner about their hopes, dreams and wishes (and quite a lot of moaning about over-use too!)
Once again a mysterious stack of letters arrives on Duncan's doormat, this time from a few familiar faces but also a whole new stack of colours who want to make their feelings known. It would be so easy for this sequel to breeze in more or less copy-catting the original book but it doesn't. In fact the new crayon crew are even funnier than the original and some of the situations are hilariously rib-tickling.
For example, we find that Pea Green has had enough being the least favourite crayon (I mean who likes peas, right?), and writes a letter to tell Duncan he's off to travel the world.
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| It's not easy being (pea) green! |
We learn that Glow in the Dark crayon (possibly the coolest crayon in the box) has got lost in the basement after Duncan scrawled scary pictures on the walls to frighten his little brother. Chunky purple crayon wants to defect, he's fed up of being jammed up the cat's nose by the aforementioned sibling and wants to make the leap to Duncan's crayon box instead...!
What delights here is that several crayons write a running story that crops up during the course of the book (so Pea Green soon discovers that crayons have difficulty opening doors, for instance so may need some urgent help from his human owner!)
Drew and Oliver once again prove to be a dream team. Acute observations from Drew, and some fantastic illustrations from Oliver (has anyone any idea how difficult it is to effectively convey that you're trying to draw like a child without making your drawings suck?) make this another winning story of crayon malcontent with a wonderful and winning double spread to round off the story in the most brilliant way.
Charlotte's favourite crayon: Dayglo Red who travels the world (but really truly sucks at geography!)
Daddy's favourite crayon: Big plump purple crayon, who doesn't love a purple crayon!!
(Kindly sent to us for review by HarperCollins Children's Books)
"The Day The Crayons Came Home"
Written by Drew Daywalt
Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Published by HarperCollins Children's Books
Release Date (Hardback): 18th August 2015