The Day the Crayons Quit

As soon as I saw this book, it looked like something rather special. Books with cover illustrations by Oliver Jeffers usually do, but this one, with it's brightly coloured crayons on a white background just popped right out at me. It is a book that screams "Pick me up and hold me," which is always a good thing.
Picture books by their very definition are a mixture of text and illustrations, and there are numerous books which have sparkling text and dull, verging on dire illustrations or books with the most amazing images but the story manages to be as dull as old pants. In my opinion, The Day The Crayons Quit is one of the best examples of the ideal marriage of words and pictures.
The premise is verging on genius. A boy named Duncan, one day has received a pile of letters from his crayons. This series of letters are sometimes complimentary but more often complaining, about just how Duncan uses them; amongst other things being overused or underused, arguing over which colour is the true colour of the sun, and embarrassingly, having the paper removed from them. There are so many highlights in the book it is difficult to choose one, however if pressed, I think I would have to select the poor peach crayon. It's the crayon which has had it's paper removed and is now nude. Imagine the horror. All this makes Duncan think and the final couple of pages give this book a triumphant finale.
With text as brilliant and witty as this by debut author Drew Daywalt, it demands top notch illustrations. Oliver Jeffers is one my favourite illustrators, and I personally find him at his very best when he is illustrating another authors work. In The Day The Crayons Quit, he manages to capture a childlike quality in the illustrations and in the letters which are hand written by Jeffers, the style is truly wonderful and manages to enhance the words, which is a wonder in itself.
My only minor criticism of this book, is that due to the style of it, having hand written all the crayons letters with illustrations on the facing pages it looks like an Oliver Jeffers book and that Drew Daywalt won't get the credit he really does deserve.
Anyhow that's the only thing I can find to fault with this book, so if you've got a 4 year old, or a child a couple of years older, do them a favour, Buy this book and share it with them. They'll thank you for it. Hopefully it will inspire some creative colouring and even possibly help children to take proper care of their crayons.