Juvenile picture books cover a variety of topics from the very silly to the didactic. Two new books offer children who feel lonely and out of place, stories that may help them through these periods of sadness.
“Red: A Crayon Story” written and illustrated by Michael Hall is geared to ages 4-8. Red is a crayon whose wrapper doesn’t match his color. When drawing “red” turns out to be blue. Though he really tries again and again, he still is blue. When he meets the purple crayon, he realizes that his true color was blue all along. The crayons drawn by the author stand out on colorless backgrounds.
“Worst in Show” for ages 3-8 deals with a competition to name the world’s best pet monster. The young boy in the story, Albert, believes that his pet monster–big and hairy, with horns and a freckled complexion–will definitely win. But Albert’s monster, Sidney, is too adorable to compete in categories like “Most Parasites” and “Hairiest Warts.” It turns out, of course, that being terrible at being a monster is what makes Sidney such a friend to Albert. Written by Michael Bee and intricately illustrated by Kate Hindley, this will be a big hit with younger readers. Both of these books are on order.
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