THE BRAND-NEW, NEVER-USED, PERFECT CRAYONS

When Violet spots a box of 84 crayons at the store, her imagination runs wild with artistic possibilities.

At home, the child opens up the box of brand-new, never-used crayons—all the same length, perfectly pointed, with smooth, uniform wrappers. But Violet is torn—her new crayons are too perfect to use (what if they get ruined?), while her old broken crayons aren’t capable of creating anything truly special…though her sister, Marigold, is happy to use them. Even their mother’s comment about the beauty of imperfections fails to convince Violet. When Marigold sneaks off and uses Violet’s new crayons to draw a picture for her, Violet is angry…first at Marigold, then at the crayons. “She was tired of worrying about them.” The sisters soon make up, and together they wear “down the perfectly pointed tips of eighty-four brand-new, never-used, perfect crayons.” As a nice touch, the text and illustrations remind readers that both girls have crayons named after them. Digitally created illustrations, some that look like child-created crayon art and others more realistic, work with the brief text to convey a simple but heartwarming tale. Hatch reminds readers that a willingness to take chances and make mistakes is crucial for any young artist. Characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Rife with valuable lessons about the creative process.