Red: A Crayon's Story
Red: A Crayon’s Story
By: Michael Hall
I didn’t want to read this book. I saw it on the shelf several times and I assumed it was a rip-off of The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt because they both showed up around the same time.
And then one day the second grader I read with picked Red: A Crayon’s Story. I’ll read anything this kid picks off the shelf because I want to encourage him choosing books that he thinks look interesting. He picks most books (picture books, anyway) by their cover. For whatever reason, he thought this book looked good.
We sat down on the couch in the corner of the library and read through Red: A Crayon’s Story. I’ll be honest, I cringed a little as the story got going because it had an obvious message—an obvious moral to the story—and this was something we were told to shy away from in grad school. Themes and morals are important, but they shouldn’t be beaten into the reader. And I worried that this children’s book was going to do just that.
I was wrong.
This is the story of a crayon that was put in the wrong wrapper when it was manufactured. All of the other crayons try to help it by suggesting projects that a red crayon surely can’t mess up—but it does. Other crafting supplies try to help it be redder by cutting its wrapper and putting tape on it. Nothing works. Until a random crayon asks Red to draw the ocean--and it’s beautiful.
It seems pretty obvious that Michael Hall’s intention with the book was to draw awareness to transgender individuals.
The wonderful thing about literature is that the reader brings a particular set of lenses to a story and through those lenses we each make our own meaning.
For my second grade friend and me, this was a story about a kiddo who struggles with learning. Some of the adult crayons in this book say things that other educators and myself have said about kids struggling to learn: “Sometimes I wonder if he’s really red at all,” or, “Well, I think he’s lazy,” or, “Give him time. He’ll catch on.” Seriously. These are the things we say about kids. Maybe they’re true sometimes. But maybe they’re not always. Maybe that kiddo just hasn’t found the thing that makes him want to read. Once that kiddo finds what makes him interested in learning, pretty soon you’ll see adults waiting for the next big thing.
This isn’t just a book about transgender. It’s about kids overcoming struggles. It’s about trudging through the education system and coming out on the other side a successful learner.
