An unboxing video that answers two questions:
- The world is on fire. Why are you making another unboxing video? What is wrong with you, anyway?
- What took you so long to make the unboxing video for How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children’s Classic? Wasn’t this book published a couple of months back?
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 so apparently “simple” as a picture book. I both thought this a great idea for a book and doubted that it would ever get published. I kept returning to it, and ultimately decided that I just needed to write the book: once it was finished, I would have the best chance at getting a contract for it. So, I did.
And to my surprise and delight, the book is not only published, but How to Draw the World is also launching a new series for Oxford University Press: “Children’s Classics, Critically,” which I’m co-editing with Professor Melanie Ramdarshan Bold of the University of Glasgow.
So, look for How to Draw the World at your local library or bookstore. Thanks!
More about Harold (some adapted from How to Draw the World)
- “Meditations in purple,” The Oxford University Press Blog, 27 Jan. 2025.
- “His crayon is purple – but is Harold a Black boy?,” The Conversation, 16 Aug. 2024.
- “The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen,” School Library Journal, 8 Aug. 2024.
More about Harold (on this blog)
- How to Draw the World: Book Trailer (30 July 2024). The story of how I made the trailer… and the trailer itself.
- The Neverending Crayon; or, Happy Crockett Johnson’s Birthday! (20 Oct. 2023). A photo of Johnson laughing, and reflections on Johnson’s influence on me.
- Harold and Maurice (20 Oct. 2022). Maurice Sendak’s signed copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the Rosenbach’s betrayal of Sendak’s memory.
- Harold vs. Donald, Round 2 (9 Sept. 2019). What if Harold were a malignant narcissist? And the US president? Cartoonists and satirists explore the idea.
- Harold and the Deluxe Edition (20 Oct. 2018). In the second of two birthday posts from 2018, an announcement! Harold’s Imagination, a collection featuring three Harold stories, plus an illustrated Afterword by Yours Truly… featuring a photograph of Johnson’s nephew Harold!
- Donald and the Golden Crayon (20 Oct. 2018). In the first of two birthday posts from 2018, an interview with the author and publisher of Donald and the Golden Crayon – the first book-length political satire inspired by a Crockett Johnson book.
- Harold is 60. So is his purple crayon (20 Oct. 2015). On the occasion of Johnson’s 109th birthday, tributes to Harold from Lane Smith, Bob Staake, and others.
- A Manifesto for Children’s Literature; or, Reading Harold as a Teenager (in The Iowa Review) (21 Sept. 2015). An essay (by me), inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon.
- Harold Around the World (20 Oct. 2014). Harold and the Purple Crayon has been published in many languages. Here are some of the covers.
- The Archive of Childhood, Part 1: Crayons (27 Dec 2014). How encountering a box of crayons from my childhood activates memories. I wish I had kept that entire box. I saved only the purple ones.
- How Much Is That Crayon in the Window? Harold at Compas, L.A. (10 May 2014). A Harold-themed window display.
- The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part II: Picture Books (23 June 2013). Picture books inspired by Harold? Some, definitely. Others may be.
- Harold and the Purple TARDIS (2 April 2012). Harold as Dr. Who.
- Harold and the School Mural (22 Jan. 2012). A Harold mural on the walls of the Ben Franklin School in Norwalk, Connecticut. (Crockett Johnson lived in South Norwalk — a.k.a. Rowayton.)
- The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part I: Comics & Cartoons (13 Sept. 2010). Comics and cartoons that pay tribute to Harold. One of the earliest posts on my blog.