What's your favorite children's book? Which one(s) do you remember from your own childhood? What books have you read again and again? What was it about them that captured your imagination?
I own a nook and also subscribe to emails from Barnes & Noble since they offer free or inexpensive e-books quite often that way. Recently, nook asked readers to name a book that influenced their lives. Without blinking, I thought, Harold and the Purple Crayon! This is a picture book, and a simple one at that. Of course, I have a running list of favorite books, books that rocked my world, books I want everyone to read and all of that. However, my favorite book as a child was Harold.
Why was Harold my favorite? Well, for one thing, Harold never got into trouble and he drew on the walls of his house with a purple crayon. In fact, in one of the books, Harold is given cocoa in a chair by the fire after one of his escapades in the night on the wall with the crayon in lieu of bed. As you read a Harold story, you see that he draws himself into all sorts of trouble. Some of it is quite silly. However, the key to Harold's success with my attention is that he is also able to craftily draw himself out of trouble in the nick of time. Harold taught me that while I might get myself into a problematic spot, I can always find a way out, find a way to return back home again to a safe place. Of course, life has not been as reliable as that. And, sometimes even when I've returned home to my safe, warm bed, I have not returned unscarred or unscathed as Harold. That is the reality of adulthood. However, each time I catch a glimpse of the purple crayon books, which still sit on my bookshelf next to hefty volumes from the classics to comics, I'm reminded of a person who taught me to take responsibility for myself and gave me the confidence to see through whatever strange purple lines that have detoured my path: Harold.
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