Though he tries to draw cherries and hearts and the other crayons cheer him on in well-meaning ways, everything he draws comes out blue. Red is a crayon who, notwithstanding his name, is clearly blue and suffers an identity crisis. In a world where labels define children from a young a age, this book encourages children to look beyond labels and be their true selves. Red is a blue crayon with the label Red on him. Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall is a great book about accepting differences. Children’s books can be used as a tool to highlight the beautiful diversity in families and identities. One of the best ways to teach kids about the important history behind this commemoration and celebration of LGBTQIA+ rights is through reading. Length-wise, it was wonderful for JJ, and she found the simple, bright illustrations highly entertaining.June is Pride Month. Obviously, this story has LGBTQ undertones as well, and it’s great at expressing that it’s okay to not be what people are expecting you to be, and that even if someone doesn’t fit the mold, they haven’t changed – rather, they have discovered who they always were inside. This was a really great book about being different: Red’s struggle and eventual triumph with figuring himself out is so universally identifiable: not conforming to one’s appearance, finding one’s own inner talents, and accepting and supporting the differences of others (Red’s friends and family never question his realization that he is blue, they are simply pleased that he is happy). Red tries, and finds that he’s wonderful at it! In fact, he can color lots of blue things! Red and his friends and family realize that he was never bad at being a red crayon, he simply never realized what a fabulous blue crayon he could be.

No one can figure out the trouble, especially Red, until one day a crayon asks him to color a blue sea. But every time he tries to draw something red (a strawberry, a stoplight, etc), it comes out looking, well, wrong.

Red is supposed to be a red crayon: it says so right on his label. Hello everyone! Our book today is Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall, and no, I didn’t go overboard with a filter on the book cover! This is a story of a little crayon figuring out who he is.

A red crayon story