He tried in vain to draw himself as a red crayon, he was humiliated in front of his classmates, and he finally stormed off in a fit of frustration.īoth Red and I were blessed with a supportive community. He accepted the label he was given and suffered profoundly. But I was like everyone else: bright about some things and not bright about other things.) Red, a blue crayon with a red label, judged himself only by how well he could draw red. As a child, I didn’t think of myself as mislabeled I thought I wasn’t very bright. I knew that, at some level, this was my story. But as I collected crayon puns - He’s not sharp enough He’s not bright enough He needs to press harder - I began to hear voices from my past. I began writing Red: A Crayon’s Story, thinking about funny events that might result when a crayon’s label does not match the crayon’s color.

But as much as I try to objectively convey the stories these elements want to tell, the story always winds up being very personal to me.

More often, I begin by fiddling with a group of shapes or words that seem interesting and try to discover what sort of subject they would most naturally express. I rarely consider what a book will be about until fairly late in the process. Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award finalist 2015 Red discussion questions within Swing activity guideĬooperative Children’s Book Center Choice 2016Į.B. Red word search, bookmark, discussion questions, group activities Purchasing links: local bookstore : barnes & noble : amazon Greenwillow Books, 2015, 40 pages, hardcover 978-7-4 He's blue! This funny, heartwarming, colorful picture book about finding the courage to be true to your inner self can be read on multiple levels, and it offers something for everyone! He just can't be red, no matter how hard he tries! Finally, a brand-new friend offers a brand-new perspective, and Red discovers what readers have known all along. His teacher tries to help him be red (let's draw strawberries!), his mother tries to help him be red by sending him out on a playdate with a yellow classmate (go draw a nice orange!), and the scissors try to help him be red by snipping his label so that he has room to breathe. Red has a bright red label, but he is, in fact, blue.

Red a crayon's story by michael hall