The Purple Crayon

#1

Post by 10char » Sat, Mar 23, 2013, 6:00 PM UTC

Re: The Purple Crayon

#2

Post by softbuilder » Sat, Mar 23, 2013, 6:30 PM UTC

I read this when I was 4. It's a simple but amazing little book. I think it contributed to my active imagination as a child. The only downside is that I drew on the walls a little bit. :)

Re: The Purple Crayon

#3

Post by protomyth » Sat, Mar 23, 2013, 7:19 PM UTC

softbuilder wrote: post #2

I read this when I was 4. It's a simple but amazing little book. I think it contributed to my active imagination as a child. The only downside is that I drew on the walls a little bit. :)

Buy the book and the buy butcher paper for the walls of the kids room - works fairly well

laminated white cardboard and dry erase markers for older children

Re: The Purple Crayon

#4

Post by RexRollman » Sat, Mar 23, 2013, 10:00 PM UTC

I never read this book as a child but I have read it many times with my nine year old daughter and I really like it. It is wonderfully imaginative and the artwork is quite nice.

I also want to mention that Crockett Johnson also did a comic strip called Barnaby, which Fantagraphics will be republishing in May.

Re: The Purple Crayon

#5

Post by dublinben » Sat, Mar 23, 2013, 11:55 PM UTC

I loved this book as a kid. I'm sure it did something to inspire my wild imagination.

Unfortunately, I see technology as less inviting to young tinkering as it once was. The command line is obscured away in modern operating systems. Mobile devices are locked down, and impossible to create new programs with anyway. If this trend continues, I fear the programming will be less accessible to young people than ever before. In the UK, the number of students studying computer science is already dramatically down from its peak.

http://royalsociety.org/news/ict-computer-science/

Re: The Purple Crayon

#6

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sun, Mar 24, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

dublinben wrote: post #5

I loved this book as a kid. I'm sure it did something to inspire my wild imagination. Unfortunately, I see technology as less inviting to young tinkering as it once was. The command line is obscured away in modern operating systems. Mobile devices are locked down, and impossible to create new programs with anyway. If this trend continues, I fear the programming will be less accessible to young people than ever before…

And yet, we have increasingly better robotic toolkits, Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet as popular video games, 3D printers, and so on. Its not all negative.

Re: The Purple Crayon

#7

Post by jasonfried » Sun, Mar 24, 2013, 3:03 AM UTC

This was my favorite book growing up.

I can't trace it exactly, but I feel like it gave me permission to create my own version of a lot of things that we usually just have to live with.

Re: The Purple Crayon

#8

Post by jonathanjaeger » Sun, Mar 24, 2013, 3:43 AM UTC

Best children's book ever! Probably the book title I've randomly thrown into conversation the most in my adult life.. I'm not sure why. Maybe the distinctive title and character.

Re: The Purple Crayon

#9

Post by dfc » Sun, Mar 24, 2013, 3:59 AM UTC

It's the story of a boy named Harold and his namesake crayon

I don't remember the story by heart but I don't think the crayon was named Harold. But I never obsessed over the story so I could be wrong. Was the crayon named harold?

Re: The Purple Crayon

#10

Post by nsmartt » Sun, Mar 24, 2013, 4:54 AM UTC

dfc wrote: post #9

It's the story of a boy named Harold and his namesake crayon I don't remember the story by heart but I don't think the crayon was named Harold. But I never obsessed over the story so I could be wrong. Was the crayon named harold?

This seems to be a mistake. I'm pretty sure the namesake mentioned is in reference to the book title, not the boy's name.