Red: A Crayon’s Story
Written and Illustrated by Michael Hall

Sometimes what our outside says and looks like does not reflect our true colors.

This wonderful story takes us through a crayons journey of discovering that he was different than what it said on his label and accepting his truth and identity. A bright, inspiring, and colorful story, Michael Hall created a picture book for students of many ages, this book is likely to touch most of your students at different levels.

In the beginning his friends and family tried to help Red be the best red crayon he could, they gave him suggestions and tips, tricks, and words of encouragement, but Red really struggled to be red. No matter how hard he tried, he could not be red. Red works with his friend yellow to try and make a big orange orange, but it came out as a big green orange instead. His teacher thought he needed more practice being red, but that did not work out well. Everyone he met had a tip about how he could fix his problem, but nothing worked and this made Red sad. Finally Red met a new friend, Berry, who asked Red to do something new, helping him find his true self.

This book can be used in so many different ways in the classroom, as a mentor text for writing, a window book about gender identity, or just a fantastic read aloud book. No matter how you bing this book into your classroom, Red A Crayon’s Story is a wonderfully thoughtful story that I highly recommend.