Bibliography: Rusch, Elizabeth. 2007. A Day with No Crayons. Flagstaff, Ariz. : Rising Moon. ISBN: 0873589106.

Plot Summary:
Liza is a typical child who loves to color with her crayons.  She particularly loves the variety of colors and decorating her room with pages from her coloring book.  One day, Liza attempts to color on the walls in her home, but her mother revokes her crayons for a whole day.  Liza then sets out to figure out how to enjoy the world without crayons, and she does so successfully by noticing all the colors out in the world.

Critical Analysis:
The concept of a child drawing on the walls is familiar to almost everyone, whether they’ve done it themselves or know a child who has.  This book gives context to why children might feel compelled to decorate the walls in their home, and how crayons (and subsequently color) can be very meaningful to children.  When Liza goes out to discover colors in her neighborhood, she realizes that colors don’t just come out of a box.  She finds that she can enjoy the colors in nature just as much, and her interest has superseded the need to have crayons to create art.

Toward the beginning of the book, the illustrations are slightly muted, even in the depictions of Liza’s artwork.  Once Liza has her crayons taken away, the images become mostly gray, with splashes of bold color and more negative space.  Finally, when she discovers color out in the world, the colors are the most vibrant and fill each page of the book.  This progression in the illustrations lends compliment to the story of how Liza’s concept of colors evolves through the book.

Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal: “So much of childhood art is commoditized and children spend so much time inside that the invitation to look to nature for both inspiration and materials is a refreshing one.”
Kirkus Reviews: “Crayon-wielders aren’t the only ones who will benefit from this exercise in thinking outside the box, whether flip-top or figurative.”