Have you been wondering whether to see the new Harold and the Purple Crayon movie? Or perhaps you have been wondering what Crockett Johnson’s biographer thinks about it? As that very person, I am glad to answer both of your questions. And I do, in “The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen,” published in School Library Journal today.
I wrote the piece over the weekend, but it took me a few days to place it. Thanks to School Library Journal for running it!
And thanks to the great Susan Hirschman for letting me name-drop her near the end of the piece. She was an editorial assistant at Harper & Brothers when most of the Harold books were published. Indeed, I suspect she is the last of the women who were then called “Ursula’s Girls” — so called because they worked for the now legendary Harper editor Ursula Nordstrom, and because sexist language demands a diminutive (“girls” instead of “women” or the gender-neutral “readers”). She also played a key role in the creation of the final Harold book, Harold’s ABC.
You can read that story and more in How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children’s Classic, coming soon from Oxford University Press.
If I do say so myself, in the coming months, there’s a good bit of good news for Crockett Johnson fans.
And, yes, this is a self-promotional claim, since I’m also co-editor of the Barnaby series. But if you like children’s books or comics, I think you’ll enjoy both!