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Who?
Scholar of children’s literature and comics. Best-known for work on radical and anti-racist children’s literature, Crockett Johnson, and Dr. Seuss – especially Was the Cat in the Hat Black?
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Crockett Johnson
Learn about the creator of Barnaby and Harold and the Purple Crayon via my (archived) Crockett Johnson Homepage and other writings.
Nine Kinds of Pie
Recent Posts
- Unboxing How to Draw the World!An unboxing video that answers two questions: A dozen years ago, I began dreaming up a small book about Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon. It would be a biography of a book, a succinct introduction to how picture books work, and show people what we gain when we look closely — especially at something
- No More Kings! Protest Musk’s Coup, on Presidents Day 2025“I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen? That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at
- Unboxing Barnaby vol. 5: THE GRAND FINALE!Take a break from calling your reps. For just a few minutes, stop doomscrolling and gloomposting. As you watch me open a box of books, you are also witnessing the successful completion of a 15-year-project… the publication in full and for the first time of Crockett Johnson’s classic comic strip Barnaby! That’s right, Barnaby Volume