Kid Konnection: The Day the Crayons Came Home

Every Saturday, I host a feature called Kid Konnection -- a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. This week I'm going to share with you an adorable picture book that is a companion to the #1 mega bestseller THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT.

Summary: I’m not sure what it is about this kid Duncan, but his crayons sure are a colorful bunch of characters! Having soothed the hurt feelings of one group who threatened to quit, Duncan now faces a whole new group of crayons asking to be rescued. From Maroon Crayon, who was lost beneath the sofa cushions and then broken in two after Dad sat on him; to poor Turquoise, whose head is now stuck to one of Duncan’s stinky socks after they both ended up in the dryer together; to Pea Green, who knows darn well that no kid likes peas and who ran away—each and every crayon has a woeful tale to tell and a plea to be brought home to the crayon box.

Look for a special glow-in-the-dark picture [Note: make sure to “charge” it under a light first]. -- Philomel

Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers have done it again! This time it's the hilarious picture book THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME. This is the companion book to THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT which I also loved -- you can read my review here. This picture book is guaranteed to make both kids and adults laugh out loud.

Duncan's crayons are definitely hard to please. In the last book, he smoothed things over when his crayons were threatening to quit; and in this edition, Duncan is once again facing crayon troubles. THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME consists of colorful postcards written to Duncan from his crayons. Maroon Crayon isn't happy that she was stuck in the couch and then broken in two when Duncan's dad sat on her. In addition, Turquoise Crayon is stuck to a sock after going through the dryer while Brown Crayon isn't happy with the "thing" Duncan drew with him. Burnt Sienna was chewed on by the dog, and so on and so on. Duncan's crayons aren't a happy set of crayons and they just want to come back home to their crayon box.

I adored THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME. The illustrations are positively adorable and the  postcards from the crayons are super funny. Booking Son was home sick from school the day the book arrived and I forced him to sit down and read it with me. He insisted he was too old, but I read it to him anyway. He still thought he was too old, but he did find Brown Crayon's postcard to be especially funny.

As a mom, I love books like this one. THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME is cute and fun, but it also is smart enough for parents to enjoy. It might be because my kids are 16 and 11 and I don't get to read out loud with them anymore, but I don't think I'd ever get tired of reading this book. It's just fantastic and so original.

In addition to receiving a review copy of this adorable picture book, I also received an event kit to celebrate "Homecoming Week" which runs from September 26th (that's today!) until October 4th. The event kit included the following:

o Stickers
o Giant crayon wall banner
o Crayons
o Make your own crayon hat activity
o Event Sign
o How to host a Crayons Homecoming Parade instruction sheet
o How to build your own crayon fort instruction sheet
o Reproducible postcard template

All of the items were pretty darn cute, but my absolute favorite was the sticker sheet.

When I showed these items to my son, he rolled his eyes at me; and there was nothing I could do to get him to color or even make the crayon hat. So... I enlisted the help of my two adorable nephews who are HUGE fans of the books. Check out how much fun they had with the posters and activity sheets.

THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME is a sure-fit hit! Highly recommended!

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, please leave a comment as well as a link below with your name/blog name and the title of the book! Feel free to grab the little button too!