Children’s book writing activity: Nathan and the Blue Crayon

One of the books we’ve been enjoying lately is ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ by Crockett Johnson.

Nathan is very intrigued by the scenery and how the story comes together through the pictures, all created by little Harold with the aid of his purple crayon.

We decided to write our own version of this story. Nathan selected blue as the colour of his crayon. Hence the title of his version: ‘Nathan and the Blue Crayon’.

But we added an extra twist to the story by creating a mini ‘Nathan figurine out’ of cardstock to walk through the pages of his story.

Then the pages were then filled with the illustrations and scenery, using a blue crayon of course. As he narrated the story, he walked the mini Nathan figurine through the pages.

I played the role of his humble secretary by jotting down his narrations on each page.

We finished off the book with a neat little pocket in the front to keep the mini Nathan figurine. I just folded a piece of coloured paper into a simple envelope and glued it onto the front page.

And there you have it! Our latest homemade book added to our collection. The cleverest one we’ve made so far I think and really fun to read out loud together.

 

P.S. Other children’s book writing activities we’ve done together at home.