Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

No one knows where or when the first ones were used but it is believed games were played with marbles as long ago as 3000BC; some were found in an Egyptian tomb of a child.  They were originally made of polished stones, fruit pits or nuts or formed of clay long before they were created from glass.  Another game dating back to ancient times is jacks (knucklebones or fivestones).  Prior to the more recent six-pronged metal pieces, bones of goats or sheep were thrown and gathered.  If you were training to be a soldier in ancient Rome chances are you participated in a form of hopscotch according to some sources on the birth of the game.  The courses were said to be one hundred feet long and the men wore all their armor to perfect endurance and strength.

One game for which a variety of theories are proposed as to its origins has been used to make decisions for centuries.  Nothing is needed other than your hands and a keen sense of strategy.  The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, April 4, 2017) written by Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Adam Rex sets forth a story so uproarious it must be true.

Long ago,
in an ancient and distant realm called
the Kingdom of Backyard,
there lived a warrior named
ROCK.

There was no doubting the toughness of Rock; he could not be beaten in any contest. While most individuals would be pleased with this particular reputation, Rock was unhappy with the lack of respectable opponents.  He ventured to the far corners of the land seeking warriors.  Alas, neither pinching nor

tart and tangy sweetness

could beat the power of Rock.  Rock left the Kingdom of Backyard.

In another domain with a lofty peak a second warrior was facing similar issues.  He was called Paper.  His intellect was beyond question.  Threats of gobbling and spitting did nothing to foil this flat fighter.  Sheer numbers found in the Pit of Office Trash Bin were no match for his blocking abilities.  And so, he left the Empire of Mom's Home Office.

In a tiny place within a larger space a third warrior dwelled named Scissors.  Known for her speed, none could conquer her.  Even the multitude of

dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets

from the bitter cold hollow was no match for her blazing blades.  Like the two previous combatants she traveled away from her known home.

As the fates would have it, Rock and Scissors encountered each other in a large arena.  A challenge was issued and a battle unlike any other followed with a victor.  One was happy to be vanquished but the other was sadder than ever.  Behold!  Unaware of the impact of his choice of words, Paper entered the scene speaking.  Two more battles with surprising results yielded a trio of triumphant and happy warriors.  Tribute to them and their respectful friendship is paid with every game played.


You have to admire the mind of author Drew Daywalt who imagined this narrative, a story to be enjoyed by all ages in many areas of the world.  It would be safe to say most people have probably engaged in some form of the game.  To explain its creation with loads of laugh-out-loud humor and inventive perception connects all players.

Expanding on the theme of long ago by naming well-known areas inside and outside homes with royal titles is brilliant.  (I know someone is going to make a map of this as soon as they finish the book.) Combining the use of dialogue and unseen narrator makes us feel as though we are reading an epic tale of heroes and heroines, the likes never to be seen again.  Here is a sample passage.

Rock traveled to the mysterious Forest of Over by the Tire Swing, where he met a warrior who hung on a rope, holding a giant's underwear.
DROP THAT UNDERWEAR AND BATTLE ME, YOU RIDICULOUS WOODEN CLIP-MAN!
I WILL PINCH YOU AND MAKE YOU CRY, ROCK WARRIOR!


When you open the matching dust jacket and book case the first thing you notice is the distinguishing physical characteristics of Rock, Paper and Scissors.  Placing them in a setting as ancient champions on top of the columns with roses at the base heightens the reader's curiosity.  The rays of light seen behind them are used again to the left on the back.  A bright yellow canvas holds a place for a unique image.  Rays spread from a triangle holding the hand shapes for rock, paper and scissors.  Written in script are the words Ro, Sham and Bo.  (You'll have to do some research if you don't know what those mean.) A slightly darker yellow, similar to the color of title text Legend, covers the opening and closing endpapers.

On the title page the words are chiseled in stone with a leafy crown of laurel.  Beneath this are the numbers 1...2...3... and turning to the verso we see the word GO!  The size and placement of the illustrations add to the pacing of the text elevating spectacular moments.  Images may be smaller surrounded by lots of white space, single page, edge to edge or across two pages.

Most of the dialogue appears in speech bubbles.  When the characters speak the font changes to reflect their personalities; Rock is in bold blocky letter, Paper is in script and Scissors is decidedly geometric as if cut-out.  Their facial features are ingenious.  In fact everything (almost everything) has faces such as the gobs of gum stuck under the desk.  Readers will love noticing the tiny and not so tiny details; Henry written on the waist of the underwear, the moon in a battle scene, or the Abraham Lincoln stamps on the desk.  And the battle scenes...well, let's just say they are beyond comparison.

One of my many, many two favorite illustrations takes place after the first of three final battles.  Without giving away too much when Paper innocently walks in on the finished fight between Rock and Scissors and casually greets them, the eyes on Rock and Scissors are totally hilarious.  In the second picture again the look Scissors gives Rock, Rock's body posture and the startled features on Paper's face are over-the-top funny.  Adam Rex has done amazing work with this book!


This title, The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, written by Drew Daywalt with pictures by Adam Rex is read aloud treasure.  There have been several conversations on Twitter (look for Stacy Riedmiller @literacybigkids) about the shared laughter between children and teachers and parents.  I can't read it silently without assigning voices to the characters.  And I have startled my dog more than once reading it aloud.  Every bookshelf, professional and personal, needs to have a copy...maybe several.

If you follow the link attached to Adam Rex's name you can access his website.  He has a blog and Tumblr pages for his books.  You can read a sample of this title at the publisher's website.  There is a short activity kit.

Colorful Complaints

Among all the papers, embellishments, ribbons, letters, pencils, pens, stamps and doodads I use for making my own greeting cards, is an unused box of 96 crayons. When I open the lid the smell is laden with decades of memories of many other boxes of crayons used with pleasure.  The colors, lined up at attention in rows, are a rainbow of possibilities.

Any size box of crayons offers endless potential for recreating what we see, doodling or filling in the spaces in our favorite coloring books. In my kindergarten years I never drew a picture without a rainbow tucked in somewhere.  To this day I have to stop to look whenever I see one stretched across the sky reminding me they are like opening a box of crayons.

You have to appreciate an author who imagines how the crayons in a box might feel about their individual treatment. The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.) by Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers finds twelve crayons in a bit of a dither.  In fact they are so upset they decide to take matters into their own... er...hands.

One day in class, Duncan went
to take out his crayons and found
a stack of letters with his name
on them.

To his surprise (I'm sure), the letters were from his crayons.  The first to air his frustrations is the color red, believing he works harder than the others.  He's absolutely pooped from all the pressure of his efforts on holidays.  No other color is used in the creation of the red-suited guy at Christmas or in all those hearts on Valentine's Day.

Who knew a crayon would nitpick about someone staying within the lines?  Not calling a color by its proper name can send them into a deep depression.  Not using them enough makes a bad situation even worse.

Gray is ever hopeful for smaller subjects to color; he finds whales, elephants and hippos exhausting.  Grumbling with just cause, white and black make solid points; why is the one rarely seen and the other usually seen as a line of varying widths.  One of the calmer, cool as a cucumber crayons, has a concern about two others bickering about the color of the sun.  Needless to say they both have written to Duncan, stating their claims in no uncertain terms.

Being a favorite color is no fun either.  You end up being rather diminished in the height department.  And what about the color that would never be used if it wasn't for Duncan's sister?  Where is Duncan's freedom of expression?  Clever and kindhearted guy that he is, Duncan's resolution is picture perfect but tape or glue might have been needed to fix peach's problem.


Lucky for we readers, it would appear Drew Daywalt has the very special gift of being able to speak and understand "crayon".  Every thought expressed by each of these colors is exactly what we might expect them to say.  Their range of emotional unhappiness or contentedness, in the case of green, is precisely and concisely stated.

It's the word choices, the emphasis, which will make readers laugh.  Even though the crayons are not pleased with Duncan each signs their letter as your _____ friend or your _____ pal.  Here are a couple of sentences from one of the letters.  Can you guess the color?

I'm not even in the rainbow.
I'm only used to color
SNOW or to fill in empty
space between other things.
And it leaves me feeling...
...well...empty.  We need
to talk.


You know you're in for some great artwork with liberal amounts of humorous touches when you read this in the publication information.

The art for this book was made with...um...crayons.

Fully animated, disgruntled, sign-carrying crayons on pieces of lined composition paper displayed across the matching, front and back, jacket and cover give a clear indication of events to come.  Miniature crayons patterned on the opening and closing endpapers continue the theme as does the title page; a single box of crayons closed with several signs lying near, one reading

We're not happy

Each of the letters is depicted on the left-hand side of a two page spread written in the correct color of the crayon having their say.  Different shaped, different styles of, paper provide the backdrop for the letters. If you were looking inside a student's desk at school, this is the kind of paper you might find there.

The childlike drawings on the right-hand side along with the cranky crayons are flawless, lively.  I can't help but wonder if the coloring book pages are real or from the hand of  Oliver Jeffers; the illustrations for this title couldn't be better.  It's a draw as to whether the red pages or the gray pages are my favorite.


I've been saving the reading of The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers for the perfect day.  Yesterday was that day.  I knew it was going to be good but I had no idea how truly playful it would be.  I've read it over and over to myself and aloud.  Voices for each of the colors make it even better.

Please follow the link embedded in Oliver Jeffers name to access his personal website.  This is a link to the International Reading Association site containing an article, Putting Books to Work: Daywalt and Jeffers' THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT   In case you have not seen the video about Oliver Jeffers yet, I've included it below.