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?
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
- Republicans attacked FDR’s dog, too.
Supporters of felonious Trump are lying about Tim Walz’s dog, Scout. Which is ridiculous. During the 1944 election, Republicans attacked FDR’s dog, Fala. People thought this ridiculous, too. FDR mocked these attacks in what became known as “the Fala Speech.” To support FDR’s 1944 re-election campaign, the Independent Voters Committee of the Arts and Sciences - Why not write with AI?
In one the courses I’m teaching this term, I’m using some class sessions to address AI. This video is the concluding component. But I don’t want to teach about AI. So, in the other course I’m teaching this term, I’m including this video, but I’m not (or, at least, not currently) building any evaluation of - His crayon is purple, but is Harold a Black boy? (in The Conversation)
Chris Ware might be the first person I know to suggest that Harold (of Purple Crayon fame) is Black. In the Foreword to the first volume of Barnaby (Fantagraphics, 2013), Ware recalled his own childhood reading of Crockett Johnson’s book: “Harold was black. At least he looked like it to me. Not that this should