Happy Birthday, Crockett Johnson… and Harold!

It is Crockett Johnson’s 118th birthday. It is also very nearly Harold’s 70th birthday. 70 years ago next month, Crockett Johnson sent a dummy of Harold and the Purple Crayon to Ursula Nordstrom, his editor at Harper & Brothers. 69 years ago, the book was published. Let’s celebrate! If you’re anywhere near Kansas City on

The President's Speech (1944): illustration by Crockett Johnson

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

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

Harold and the Purple Crayon movie poster

The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen (in School Library Journal)

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

How to Draw the World: book trailer

Coming this fall from Oxford University Press, it’s How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the Making of a Children’s Classic. That’s right! It’s my small book about Crockett Johnson’s even smaller one. I’ve made a book trailer for it. I’ll share more about the book in the coming months. But

Children & Youth Studies Caucus. Logo by Megan Montague Cash

Two Calls for Papers: American Studies Association 2024

BOTH DEADLINES EXTENDED: Friday, 2 February 2024 TWO Calls for Papers: American Studies Association 2024 (Baltimore, November 14-17) 1: Children as Medical Subjects This Children and Youth Studies Caucus-sponsored panel seeks papers that consider the role of children and childhood in histories of medicine. From experiments across medical, scientific, and social scientific disciplines to issues of

Defend the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans

Here are some resources for supporting public libraries and defending everyone’s right to read freely. I assembled them for the “Censoring Children’s Literature” class I taught last semester, and am sharing them now in connection with the Modern Language Association panel “Drag Queens, Stories about Black People, and Other Dangers,” held in the Liberty Room

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE, COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND CHILDHOOD STUDIES AT MLA 2024

Here are all of the 2024 MLA sessions devoted to Children’s Literature, Comics/Graphic Novels, or Childhood Studies. The conference will be held this year in person in Philadelphia — and on-line, as noted below. I’ll be there! I’m chairing one on-line session and one in-person session. If you’ll be there, too, stop by and say