Elem. – Creepy Crayons

Reynolds, Aaron. Creepy Crayons. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. 978-1-668-87995-5. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades K-3.

Jasper Rabbit is struggling to pass math and spelling in school. He knows he needs to study more, but he has trouble focusing. On the way home from school one day, he finds a purple crayon in the gutter. Intrigued by how happy the crayon seems to see him, Jasper picks it up and brings it home. That night, even though he knows he should be studying for his spelling test, Jasper spends the evening watching TV before falling asleep. The next day, he decides to use the purple crayon on the spelling test. Shockingly, when he gets his test back, he has aced it! At home, his father asks him to complete his math homework. But when he picks up his math textbook, he finds a strange message written on the cover in purple: “Who needs math when you have Bunny Brawl 3?” Truer words were never spoken for Jasper, and he settles in to play the video game. The next day, Jasper uses his purple crayon on his pop quiz in math and  – surprise! – he gets every problem correct. He starts noticing other messages left by the crayon, such as “Jasper + Crayon 4ever! on his backpack and “Don’t ignore me!” on his table. Suddenly, Jasper realizes that even though he loves getting As on his schoolwork, this crayon is too creepy to keep around. Jasper has to find a way to discard the crayon for good before it makes a big mess of his life.

THOUGHTS: Jasper already has survived Creepy Carrots and Creepy Pair of Underwear and in doing so, he has become a favorite character among students in grades K-3. Young readers will love revisiting Jasper and reading about the chaos the crayon causes in his life. The creepy carrots make an appearance in this book as they did in Creepy Pair of Underwear, and illustrator Peter Brown’s signature black and white is punctuated with a powerful purple in this third creepy installment.

Picture Book         Danielle Corrao, Manheim Central SD

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