SNAP!

by Hazel Hutchins, Dusan Petricic (Illustrator)

Overview

Snap! Scritch! Whoosh! There goes another crayon!

What could be more perfect than a brand new set of crayons? Evan can’t wait to use them, until Snap!, the brown one breaks in two. Then one by one, the others break, get crushed, are blown away, or simply disappear. How can he possibly draw when there’s no green, purple, or even black?

Evan feels like throwing things, but instead, he scribbles using all the bits and pieces that are left. But what’s this? Where yellow and blue cross, there’s green, and when blue and red get all mixed up, it creates just the right purple to draw monsters. Soon, all he’s left with are tiny stubs of red, yellow, and blue, but Evan discovers that even with just a few crayons, he can create new and exciting art¬—his imagination is the only tool he needs.

The winning combination of Hazel Hutchins’s lively text and Dušan Petricic’s ingenious illustrations make this a wonderful addition to every young child’s library.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554517701
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	08/07/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Hazel Hutchins is the author of over 30 children's books, including the award-winning picture book, Mattland, also illustrated by Dusan Petricic. She lives in Canmore, Alberta.

Dusan Petricic's brilliant illustrations have appeared around the world. His most recent book, The Man With the Violin, was the winner of the prestigious TD Children's Literature Award. He lives in Zemun, Serbia.

Editorial Reviews

“A beautifully humorous ode to both pragmatism and imagination.”
—Kirkus Reviews, *starred review, 07/15/15


“This gently affirming book … offers an important message …”
—Booklist, 11/01/15

“A sweet story to pair with other artistic titles in storytime …”
—School Library Journal, 11/15

“… a delightful book.”
—Quill & Quire, 10/15

“The illustrations are just perfect for the story. The details and expressions are ingenious enriching the text so well.”
—Storywraps, 07/14/15

“The illustrations in this story are mesmerizing …”
—Ventura County Star, 07/30/15

“… a fun story about creativity, frustration, and the ways in which hardships … ensure the use of imagination in problem solving.”
— Sense and Sensibility and Stories, /07/12/15

“… lively and charming …”
—Sal’s Fiction Addiction, 09/19/15

“… would be great in the preschool and younger elementary grade classrooms …”
—Welcome to Our Book Wonderland, 10/27/15

From the Publisher

11/01/2015
PreS-Gr 2—The only thing worse than no crayons to draw with? Broken crayons! So begins this story, in which Evan has a brand new set of crayons that were perfect in every way—until the brown crayon snaps in two. Frustrated, he tries willing the pieces back together and taping them, to no avail. But then Evan realizes that two brown crayons are better than one—and he uses his imagination and stubs to begin drawing. When other crayons break and snap into multiple pieces, Evan continues creating with smudges, spots, and even rubbings of objects underneath his paper. When the green crayon falls into a crack in the staircase, Evan scribbles with his other crayons, realizing when the blue and yellow drawings crossed, "there was green." Petricic's illustrations are twofold—capturing the look and feel of a child's drawings through Evan. The sketched outlines, shaded with the primary colors found in a basic crayon set, effectively demonstrate Evan's creative imagination. And when his crayons become too small for art, Evan realizes that he can turn "an ending into a beginning" by using his page of artwork to create something new—a paper airplane. VERDICT A sweet story to pair with other artistic titles in storytime, such as Peter Reynolds's The Dot (Candlewick, 2003) or Gabriel Alborozo's Let's Paint! (Allen & Unwin, 2014).—Lisa Kropp, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2015-07-15
Evan learns a lot about life in general and colors in particular as his new set of crayons ages. "Evan had a brand new set of crayons, perfect in every way until…SNAP!" The tousle-headed, large-eyed Evan is Everychild as he grapples with the first time a crayon breaks—a trauma well-known by young artists. A humorous, four-vignette sequence follows on the next double-page spread, as Evan tries in vain to mend the unmendable brown crayon, by ordering, pressing, and taping it, respectively. His first of many aha moments comes when he realizes that "one broken crayon became two crayons," and he proceeds to create such tandem items as railroad tracks and tiger stripes. The artwork, a lively mixture of colored pencil and, of course, crayons, perfectly complements the childlike-but-highly-legible printing on each page. As crayons disappear or break or wear down, Evan eventually learns—by his own experimentation—such things as the usefulness of primary colors and how to create rubbings from textures underneath paper. There is even a gentle hint about appropriate ways of venting frustration: "Evan felt like throwing things. But instead, he scribbled." The thoughtful ending is a child-friendly way to introduce the philosophy that what we call art may well be a mixture of science and imagination—with a little magic thrown into the mix. A beautifully humorous ode to both pragmatism and imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews