Harold and the Purple Crayon

Could there be a more adorable cartoon boy than Harold? I think not. Believe it or not, I just read this classic for the first time about a month ago and thought it was the cutest thing I'd read since I myself was a toddler. When I had to do a children's book assignment for one of my classes this week, I knew the Harold was my boy. This book is, in my opinion, excellent for instilling inspiration and personal motivation in students: Harold wants to go for a walk with his crayon, so he draws his walk. He makes his own street. He makes his own moon and his own picnic and his own sailboat to rescue himself and his own apple tree. When Harold travels all over with his crayon, creating his own adventures, and wants to go back home, he draws his house and he's home. Basically, Harold decides that something should exist, so he creates it himself. When unforseen scary times approach - Harold accidentally draws waves that swallow him up and try to drown him - he doesn't loose all hope and give up...he draws himself a sailboat so he can pull himself out of the scary water and sail back to land. When he accidentally falls off a cliff that he never drew the other side of, Harold calmly draws a hot air balloon and floats away. What a perfect conversation starter for students who have grown up thinking that they have been provided with a concrete set of intelligence or skill or talent and that they lack any control over their success. I think it might be even more perfect for a conversation regarding how to react when bad things surprise you. Harold didn't give up. Harold simply created his own escape plan and turned it into something good. If you aren't so interested in this particular route for instruction, I think this book also works beautifully for introducing unconventional figures (historical, scientific, fictional) who broke the rules and thought a bit nontraditionally but who made a huge difference in their given field. If none of these interest you, you could perhaps discuss Harold's impact on the environment as he travels through his drawn world...but that might be a little bit of a stretch...