Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, 5 stars, 64 pages, 1955

I loved reading this book with Gage when he was younger. There are so many ways to be inspired, so many fabulous activities to do with your little ones. The most important thing about this book is the lesson that there’s magic in imagination. This magic may come from creating your own world through art or words. Or the magic from getting lost in a story from someone else’s imagination. Art is subjective. Art is your own point of view. Embrace it.

The illustrations are simple, just a black and white Harold and everything that comes from his purple crayon. It encourages enchantment of the mind. There is magic in the every day, the mundane. He draws himself into comforting situations and into danger equally and manages to be zen about it.

Gage and I went to see the movie this summer starring Zachary Levi as Harold. It maintained some of the magic and much of the simplicity of the book. I thought it was cute, although I did take issue with the bad guy being a librarian/writer.

This is going my Top 100 Kids Books list.