A DAY WITH NO CRAYONS

Having her crayons confiscated after an unfortunate incident with a wall turns out to be a real horizon-expander for a budding artist. Liza treasures her turquoise, adores apricot and flips over fuchsia, but when she decorates a blank wall after running out of paper, her mom takes all of these bright colors away—literally, in the illustrations, as Liza and her surroundings instantly fade to dull grays. Happily, that doesn’t last long; colors leech back in to the world as Liza not only finds vibrant new hues in mud, flowers and grass, but discovers the pleasures of assembling pebbles, petals and other small found items into a beach, a sunset and other artistic constructs. By the time she gets her crayons back that evening, she’s been liberated from her dependence on them, and is looking at the world with new eyes. Crayon-wielders aren’t the only ones who will benefit from this exercise in thinking outside the box, whether flip-top or figurative. (Picture book. 6-8)