Harold and the Purple Crayon

Crockett Johnson
Harper 1955

In my earliest memory of the elementary school library, I zoom like a homing pigeon to the shelf where I know I'll find the Harold and the Purple Crayon books. When I began to read independently, these were my favorites. Little Harold in his foot pajamas draws himself adventure after adventure with nothing more than a simple purple crayon. The narration is spiced with wit and there's a jolly sense of anything goes within the broad scope of Harold's delightfully childish logic.

I hope that my three-year-old's earliest memories of books will include how gleefully his mother read Harold's purple crayon stories to him.