  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 11/01/2015 Failure is all a matter of perspective in this book celebrating the creativity and discovery of young children. Evan is dismayed when his new brown crayon breaks in half, until he realizes what he can do now that he has two. A crushed red crayon becomes vermillion fur, and the loss of the green crayon seems insurmountable, until he accidentally mixes blue and yellow. And when the last few colored crumbs have been used up, there are endless possibilities to be found using the paper itself. This gently affirming book will speak to any young reader who has experienced frustration or disappointment, offering an optimistic viewpoint in simple, relatable text. Petricic’s charming illustrations bring a riot of color that perfectly captures the energy and focus of a preschooler experiencing a burst of creative activity, and readers will laugh out loud at some of Evan’s attempts to solve his crayon dilemmas. Though lighthearted in tone, this offers an important message about how children can deal with some of the challenges life throws their way. - Copyright 2015 Booklist. School Library Journal - 11/01/2015 PreS-Gr 2—The only thing worse than no crayons to draw with? Broken crayons! So begins this story, in which Evan has a brand new set of crayons that were perfect in every way—until the brown crayon snaps in two. Frustrated, he tries willing the pieces back together and taping them, to no avail. But then Evan realizes that two brown crayons are better than one—and he uses his imagination and stubs to begin drawing. When other crayons break and snap into multiple pieces, Evan continues creating with smudges, spots, and even rubbings of objects underneath his paper. When the green crayon falls into a crack in the staircase, Evan scribbles with his other crayons, realizing when the blue and yellow drawings crossed, "there was green." Petricic's illustrations are twofold—capturing the look and feel of a child's drawings through Evan. The sketched outlines, shaded with the primary colors found in a basic crayon set, effectively demonstrate Evan's creative imagination. And when his crayons become too small for art, Evan realizes that he can turn "an ending into a beginning" by using his page of artwork to create something new—a paper airplane. VERDICT A sweet story to pair with other artistic titles in storytime, such as Peter Reynolds's The Dot (Candlewick, 2003) or Gabriel Alborozo's Let's Paint! (Allen & Unwin, 2014).—Lisa Kropp, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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