Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 08/01/2023 PreS-Gr 2—As the summer wraps up, the anthropomorphic crayons in "The Day the Crayons Quit" series must wave goodbye to ice cream cones and days at the beach. On the first day of school, the class greets their familiar crayon box buddies, finding their individual personalities from prior titles are unwavering, while also creating new colorful friendships. Peach Crayon is still without a wrapper and needs to find the right back-to-school outfit to cover up. Being the favorite color of many scribblers, Blue Crayon continues to be short and stubby from frequent use. Chunky and Husky Toddler Crayons realize they have the same last name and ponder the possibility that they are related. Neat and orderly, Purple Crayon solves predictable math problems, and Black Crayon is back to outlining. White Crayon is lost in a good book—or more like the white background of the page, per usual. Science-loving Yellow and Orange Crayons may still not agree on the color of the sun, but for once they can agree that drawing Jupiter requires teamwork on their part. In this illustration- and dialogue-driven story, Daywalt's simple, one-sentence pages are expanded upon with playful crayon written dialogue and Jeffers's beloved signature gouache, ink, colored pencil, and crayon illustrations. Delightful endpapers display a spread of crayons and doodles. The short and sweet length of this humorous story matches the small size of the physical book. VERDICT The Crayons haven't quit yet, and libraries will not want to quit expanding their collections of Daywalt titles with this bite-sized back-to-school send-off.—Emily Brush - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.