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So simple, it's rather Zen. I think this is one of those books that every child should experience. It's picture based (as opposed to text based) so there's a delightful interactive element and the child can rather tell his own tell about Harold as together they follow the purple crayon from page to page.inviting you and your child into the book to explore. And lovely. Must, must, must for all.
This book fascinated me as a kid. Not to get overly analytical, but the concept of creating a new world with a few strokes of a purple crayon really spoke to me in the broader sense of the power of creativity to open up a life.
Our favorite part is when Harold is hungry: "There was nothing to eat but pie. Great book that will inspire young and old to take up drawing. But there were all nine kinds of pie that Harold liked best." The nine kinds of pie are never listed, so it is a fun game to play with your kids to see if you can name them. It's a great story as well as an inspiration to budding artists, showing that by drawing a line, a circle, etc. you can create new worlds. It's also a nice touch that not everything is perfectly drawn, adding to the spontaneous, spur of the moment quality of the book. A timeless classic.
One of the best books for young children ever written. 55 years ago, I loved it and all its sequels as a child; all my nephews and nieces were entranced with the book; and even today, I gave the book to a neighbor for his third birthday, and he and his mother couldn't have been more thrilled and appreciative.
Because of their limited life experiences and cognition, they often distort reality in order to fit what is happening to them. Sounds like the Akbar-Birbal story in which the guy looses his golden ring some place but is looking under the street light because there is plenty of light under the street light right.
He wants excitement so he makes his own adventure like walking in to a forest, creating a scary dragon and ends up getting scared by his own imagination. That Harold.with his blue pajamas and his purple crayon he is such a riot.If he wants to walk on something he makes his own straight path and then realizes that a straight path is no fun because it leads no where.
Then he realizes that his window is `always right around the moon'. Half way in to his adventures, Harold realizes that he wants to go home and the rest of his adventure is getting himself home.
Harold is frantically trying to find the window of his bedroom in the hundreds of windows that he drew. This is the thinking process of a preschool child.
Harold is Piaget's pre-operational child, to the T.
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