The Crayons' Book of Numbers

Crayons

by Drew Daywalt

Counting is as easy as 1... 2... purple?... in this charming book of numbers from the creators of the #1 New York Times Best Sellers, The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home.

Poor Duncan can't catch a break! First, his crayons go on strike. Then, they come back home. Now his favorite colors are missing once again! Can you count up all the crayons that are missing from his box?

From the creative minds behind the The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home comes a colorful board book introducing young readers to numbers.

Genres: Picture Books, Counting, Childrens, Fiction, Mathematics, Number, Humor

20 pages, Board book

First published October 18, 2016

About the author

Ever since his childhood in one of Ohio’s most haunted houses, writer director Drew Daywalt has been writing escapist fantasy and building worlds of his own. With a degree in Creative Writing, and a concentration in Children’s Literature from Emerson College in Boston, Daywalt set off to Hollywood where he spent years writing for Disney and Universal on such beloved shows as Timon & Pumba, Buzz Lightyear, and Woody Woodpecker, and where his animated series The Wacky World of Tex Avery garnered an Emmy nomination.

His first trip into live action landed him studio screenwriting and feature film directing work with such Hollywood luminaries as Quentin Tarrantino, Lawrence Bender, Tony Scott, Brett Ratner and Jerry Bruckheimer.

With an eye toward picture book writing, Daywalt’s first book THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, debuted on the New York Times Best Seller’s List in June 2013, and has since become a Number One Best Seller.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOST CRAYONS! Who can't remember the dread of this situation! Cute book that will appeal to children and bring a smile to adults.

[Jocelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute addition in the "Crayon" library. An easy and fun read that incorporates using colors and numbers. A great way to introduce 2-4 year olds to the "Crayons". Some of the story is borrowed from the crayon series but, it is still a joy to read.

[Beckie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crayons amd counting. This book was great for counting and color recognition and loved by both my 2 year old and 7 year old.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the story opens, all of Duncan's crayons are missing from the box. The book takes the reader through counting the colors until they all return to the box. It's fun to see each crayon express feelings about what they are used to color or what they would like to be used for. I love the illustrations that Jeffers creates, they feel so childlike and friendly. And the variety of different things created gives parent and child lots of things to talk about as they read. This book would also make a fun way to introduce children to crayons and what they can be used for.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This crayon book I like. It's a simple counting book and the crayons give their two cents.

[Harlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those crayons are soooo silly!

[Maxwell Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just rehashing the content from the original story and turn a profit. Not worth a read.

[Jeimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute counting book. Although I’ve seen others that are better, this one brings the characters’ personalities to life.

[Hailey Corman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counting book using Duncan’s familiar crayons. The crayons are lost and throughout the book the crayons are found and counted along the way. Great counting book for elementary kids who are familiar with the group of crayons.

[Chrissie Sieber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently the good night story we read ever night, it's cute, great for counting and naming the colours yet merciful short.

[Amanda Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The crayons maintain their characters

This book might be more fun if you've read the other crayon books. I feel like coloring a pink dinosaur now.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly fun, stereotype-defying, short read. The crayons of Jeffer's The Day The Crayons Quit are adapted to a unique take on the ubiquitous counting book genre. Numbers 1 to 10 each have a colour, though are not the colour, rather the next crayon in line (ie. there are not four pink crayons (I can't recall is pink appeared 4th) but accumulated crayons with each a new colour, totalling 10 by the end.) Jeffers never does anything conventionally and this remains true here. Each crayon has something to say about how it is used in colouring (eg. orange laments that yellow claims to be the colour of the sun, but orange insists that orange is the colour of the sun.) It's short as it's a 1-10 counting book.
I put this at the top of my didactic learning picture book list, though, to be fair, it's not didactic. Counting, yes. Counting book formula? No way would Jeffers do that!
A fun read for my 40 year old self as I drank coffee this morning.
And three cheers for pink who wants to be used to colour a dinosaur!

SORRY!!! Drew Dewalt wrote the text; Jeffers illustrated. My apologies. Leaving my errors in place and acknowledging my mistake. I need to look at Dewalt's bibliography now, as the illustrations were classic Jeffers; the text was Dewalt's and I loved it. More! More! More!

[Lauren Schlueter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book under the numbers category. I absolutely love this book! The main character has lost all of his crayons and has asked the reader to help him look for them. Not only is this a counting book, but it is also showing the different colors of the crayons. Students will find this book comical as the crayons are talking to the reader saying things like "I am the true color of the sun." from the yellow crayon. Also, the really cool thing about this book is the illustrations throughout. I'm not sure if children have actually drawn the pictures, but even if they children didn't draw them, they look very childish and i think that students will love seeing "other students'" pictures in a book.

[Rubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, I just....expected a liiiittle more creativity from a 'The Crayons' book. Thats just me. If we were going to "look" for the missing crayons, at the very least have the crayons hiding or something. Still recommend every other The Crayons books though. They are usually witty and funny, love them haha

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute book that I will have to buy for my niece.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat little colors and counting board book.

[Bianca Orellana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this one for colors and numbers!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brings a little color to the learning of counting

[Nina Seal · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Crayons' Book of Numbers" by Drew Daywalt is a book that allows a student to associate colors, numbers, and objects that they relate to. In this picture book the reader is asked to help Duncan find his box of 10 missing crayons while viewing pictures each color is often used to draw. The main idea is to find all 10 colors including: yellow, orange, green, pink, red, purple, blue, brown, black, grey. While counting, the child can see that Duncan used the crayons to color things such as a purple wizard, green crocodile, yellow sun, orange sun, brown branch, pink dragon, blue storm/ocean, red Santa and fire truck, black rainbow, and grey elephant. By bringing the characters to life, the child sees the playful nature that the crayons add to this book. Overall I thought this book was easy to read, and give it three stars because I liked the idea of the counting book but have my favorites such as "Ten Black Dots" by Donals Crews, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Erie Carle, and "One" by Kathryn Otoshi. In the same sense I liked how there was a lack of color to allow the students to use their imagination to further understand which objects to associate certain colors with. If I were a teacher I would use this book for early levels of education such as 2-5 because it covers the base ten counting numbers.

[Charisma Sampson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: The Crayons’ Book of Numbers
Author: Drew Daywalt
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers
Genre: Children’s Literature, Fiction
Theme(s): Counting, Colors
Opening line/sentence: Duncan’s ten crayons have gone missing! Can you help find them for him and count along the way?
Brief Book Summary: Duncan’s ten crayons have gone missing so, throughout the book, we are finding the crayons and working on our counting along the way.
Tell Me Framework:
Like(s): I like how this book is a good introduction to teaching young children about counting while also talking about the color of that particular crayon.
Dislike(s): I do not dislike anything about this book.
Pattern(s): On each page, we find a new crayon and count how many crayons we now have.
Puzzle(s): No questions.
Consideration of Instructional Application: This book is a good introduction to a lesson on counting from 1-10. After reading the book, you could have children work on their counting with the help of loose parts.

[Ellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars (I liked it)

This book is similar to The Crayons' Book of Colors in that it basically just rehashes the original story but different in that I think it does a better job! I always use The Day the Crayons Quit to teach my 2nd graders about providing evidence for their claims. The claim is "Duncan is a bad crayon owner" and they use the crayon's letters to find the evidence.
This board book has the evidence in it's simplest form. I almost want to get this book for my students who struggle when looking through the entire text as this would give them the main points!

[Becky B · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Day the Crayons Quit is boiled down into a board book form with one short sentence from each crayon and a count of the total number of crayons met so far.

I don't know why they didn't make a new storyline for this one. It is a great example of succinct summarizing if you are looking for an example of that for young writers. I can see a lot of people being disappointed they spent money on this if they already have The Day the Crayons Quit. I mean Jeffers didn't even make any new illustrations for this, they just cut illustrations from the original book. It's an ok counting book and really not a bad book. The two stars just represent the fact that I know Daywalt and Jeffers are wells of creativity so I'm kind of disappointed they didn't do something entirely new for this book.

[Sophia Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for prekindergarten or Kindergarten. It is a simple book that goes along with "The Crayons'" series. I love those books as they make kids laugh because they crayons have different personalities and alive so it makes the kids laugh. Basically, the child loses all his crayons and each page of the book is finding each page and it counts to 10. The crayons' each make a comment on what it feels like to be that color crayon. It only counts to 10 so it isn't the most difficult read ever. But it could be really great if students like this crayon series.
I could see myself having this book in my class, but it is almost too simple to keep and read aloud. It could be a great book to send home the book to practice counting and reading at home. But it is most definitely too simple to keep around in class. It is a cute read though!

[Caroline Talley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Picture Book- Counting
Awards: None
Audience: Grades K-1
A. This book is a picture book that focuses on counting. This fits the category because there are pictures that take up the majority of the page and a few words that focus on counting to ten as you go through the book.
B. Texture was used very well by the illustrator to depict that each crayon was actually used to color the pictures on the page with a not very solid and intense line used like when you use a crayon in real life.
C. I would use this story as a “read aloud” to the class and encourage their participation in counting along with me as I read. This is a slightly silly book that students will enjoy hearing in a large group setting.
D. Which crayon was the favorite color? Blue was the favorite.

[Wynter]

This book is a counting book with a storyline as well. All the crayons have disappeared from the box and we have to help find them! Once you find one crayon, they say what they like to draw, then they go back into the box. The third crayon is yellow and likes to draw the sun while the fourth is orange and enjoys drawing the sun as well since he thinks he is the true color of the sun. The illustrations were not as clear as I would have liked them to be especially for a book for very young kids learning how to count- I think they needed to be a bit more precise. Overall however I would recommend thus book as it had a storyline that went along with it to keep kids more interested.

[Nickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the SAME illustrations as in the COLORS board book! That's such a ripoff. Also, there were 12 crayons in the original story and this book only counts 10 of them. Also, because the illustrations didn't change at all to distinguish this book from the other, counting is basically page numbers as a 1-1 tactile identifier is not displayed from page to page. IE, if the first crayon found is blue, it doesn't appear on the next page to help find "red". The very small child reading the board book is supposed to retain that this is now the second crayon they found.

[Emily Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duncan's ten crayons have gone missing and he needs help finding them. This book takes readers on hunt to find out where Duncan's crayons might have gone. It makes you count along the way helping young children practice their counting skills. The illustrations in this book are very playful and colorful. I really enjoyed how they looked they were colored with crayons since the whole book is about crayons. I also thought it was such a clever idea to put the crayon count and color at the bottom of each page when the crayons were found.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suitable for its target age and even readable to a younger audience (although they will understand less and more appreciate the thick pages to turn), this charming little tale takes the reader through counting the colours of Duncan’s missing crayons. The pages are thick and can stand up to children’s less dexterous hands, the illustrations are childlike and friendly, and the cute counting will be useful for the intended audience.

My nephew is younger than the target age, so he got the most of out of turning the pages, having the story read to him, and looking at the pictures.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a book I would pick for my little one if we were really focused on numbers. It is meant to be about numbers but very little of the pictures have to do with them except for a tiny numeral and small crayons in the corner of each page. They just took images from their other books that have nothing to do with numbers and paired them with a number at random. Felt lazy and like a way to quickly cheat money from families who enjoy the actual Crayons' books. Skip this one and stick to the stories. Get an actual number book for your child to learn with.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great for fans of this crayon series, which I am. But as a stand alone book, I feel it was rushed and lacked depth. I know, I know...it’s a kids book. But the other books in this crayon series have so much story building and character development. I feel like this one was just pushed out to continue the series’ presence and not to enhance it.

Still, a solid choice for a number storytime, if all your other good counting books are checked out.