Creepy Crayon! continues the instant classic illustrated magic

A magic pencil is the real-life sibling of Creepy Crayon! However, in reality, Creepy Crayon! is the third book in the Jasper Rabbit-led series by Aaron Reynolds with art by Peter Brown. Creepy Carrots! and Creepy Pair of Underwear! were the first two and have since become ubiquitous in elementary school libraries and classrooms.  Moreover, these books are everywhere and kids actually want to read them. Let’s take that a step further and say that these books, in addition to the newest entry, Creepy Crayon!; straddle the line between illustrated book noir, funny and spooky like no other books those ages will read.  If Rod Serling made an illustrated book it would be in league with these books.

As proof of this, I present to you our 13-year-old middle school student. He came home the other day, saw Creepy Crayon! on the kitchen table, and said, “ooooh, they made another one?” That sentence could be taken as a feeling of dread or disbelief that yet another entry has been produced in a declining or already bad series. Instead, this was more of an anticipatory statement. Reading the book was something that this seventh-grade student was looking forward to.

To be fair I yelped like a schoolgirl looking at the cover of Tiger Beat when I opened the mail and saw the book. Thankfully, Creepy Crayon! does not disappoint and is relentless in its fun. Jasper Rabbit is in second or third grade and floundering badly with his grades. His spelling is subpar, his math doesn’t add up and his projects are comprised of poor quality. Then, one day on his walk home he sees a purple crayon in the street. Jasper doesn’t know why, but he feels compelled to pick it up and place it in his pencil pouch.

Once the purple crayon enters his life things start to turn around quickly. He’s able to quickly do math problems, and spell words that were previously out of his wheelhouse, and the projects that he creates win first prize. Jasper’s grades go from worst to first and he’s decorated as the most improved student. However, all of this comes with a cost that his teachers and classmates don’t see.

The crayon seems to have a mind of its own. Jasper can feel the crayon calling to him at times. It’s a magenta-tinted elementary school siren that started out only wanting a little bit of his attention, but now requires all of it, and will accept nothing less. He sees messages on his belongings like “Jasper and purple crayon 4ever”. All of this is adding up to major stress for Jasper who secretly just wants things to go back to where they were before this purple haze chaos.

Creepy Crayon! succeeds because it is creepy, but it’s never scary. That fact is obvious just by looking at the illustrations. They’re big and tell the story in a symbiotic relationship with the words. It’s very easy to imagine a piece of scary instrumental music being played as you read the book up until the very end when it crests, and immediately resets the story as the crayon’s future is in doubt.

It’s a great, good-night book that older folks won’t mind reading more than once, or really slowing the story down for dramatic effect. Those younger ages will pretend to be scared and the older audiences will fantasize about the possibility of a writing device really enabling you to get all of the answers correct.  Creepy Crayon! also has a couple of panels that give a subtle hat tip to Creepy Carrots! and Creepy Pair of Underwear!.

As I write this I’m trying to think of any illustrated book series that has improved with each new release and I can’t think of one. What usually happens is that they decrease in quality or remain the same, but simply have an average means of appreciation. Educators or parents might think the book is not a timeless classic, but it’s entertaining enough to hold the student’s attention, so let’s run with it.

Creepy Crayon!, much like the sequel that preceded it, is an instant classic. This is one of those books that will remain in your forever library. If the book lives in a library then it’ll be the subject of countless read-along and will stake claim to a portion of a child’s elementary school memory. That same kid will pick up the book 25 years from now, remember how great it is, and read it to their kids.

Creepy Crayon! is by Aaron Reynolds with illustrations by Peter Brown.

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