The Crayon Man
Hey Lion Cubs! Happy Monday! Welcome to another edition of Long Distance Library! One of my traditions, each year when school starts, is to buy a new box of crayons. I just love that new crayon smell. It reminds me of being a little girl and starting a brand new school year with a brand new box of crayons! Well, I still get excited about starting a brand new school year, now as the school librarian, with my brand new box of crayons. I was excited to see that one of this year's North Carolina Children's Book Award nominees was a book about crayons. The book, written by Natascha Biebow, is called The Crayon Man, and it's all about the inventor of Crayola crayons. Click here for my daily video and then let's get started with our colorful Long Distance Library!
What's your favorite color? Mine is purple. When I was a little girl my grandfather called it "purkle" just to make me laugh. All those times I colored in coloring books as a little girl, I never knew, or thought about, how crayons were invented. This book, The Crayon Man, written by Natascha Biebow, tells the story of Edwin Binney who invented the first Crayola crayons. Before Edwin created his crayons, children couldn't draw anything in color. But with hard work and perseverance, Edwin found a way to bring the world's vibrant colors to children everywhere inside a bright green box - and for only a nickel! Click here to go to KidLit TV to see Natascha Biebow read aloud her book The Crayon Man.
We found out how Edwin Binney made the first Crayola crayons while reading The Crayon Man. But how are those same crayons made now? Do you think they are still made by hand like Edwin made his? Or do you think they are made by machines now? Well, let's find out. Click here and we will take a trip inside the Crayola crayon factory to find out just how crayons are made today.
How about some more books about color? These next three books come to us from TumbleBooks. In Purple, Green, and Yellow, Brigit really loves markers. But when she draws on herself with super permanent markers, she knows she's in trouble. In Red Is a Dragon, a little girl finds color in all sorts of everyday things. Red is the dragon in the Chinese New Year parade, green is a bracelet made of jade, and yellow is the taxi she sees on her street. In the book What Color is Caesar?, Caesar is a large white dog with big black spots. Or is he a black dog with lots of white spots? That's the problem. He doesn't know and he won't rest until he finds out. By the end of the story, though, Caesar finds out it's what's on the inside that matters most. Click here to go to the TumbleBooks website, or click the links below to go to each of the stories.
Our whole theme today has been all about colors. Bright, colorful books with shiny covers are usually the ones that catch our attention. But what if there was a book with no pictures? Would we be interested in it? Would we want to check it out? Would it be boring with no pictures to look at? Well, Ryan and Craig, from Storytime with Ryan and Craig, are going to read us a book with no pictures and it's called The Book With No Pictures. Written by B. J. Novak, this book may seem boring and serious. But, here's how books work - everything on the page has to be read aloud even if the words say BLORK or BLUURF. Well, that's got my attention. Click here to go to Storytime with Ryan and Craig to hear all about The Book With No Pictures. I don't think this will be boring at all!
We will wrap up our Long Distance Library today with a couple of links you might enjoy. The first link is for the Crayola website. They have lots of fun activities and project ideas on their website. The second is for a website where you can color lots of different pictures online. If you want to print the pictures out and color them with your own crayons you can, but you can choose to color the pictures online, too.