Doodleday by Ross Collins (Albert Whitman & Company, 2011) is about an imaginative day gone completely wrong, despite a young boy’s best efforts to make it right.
Before his mom left, Harvey was warned not to draw because it was “Doodleday.” Of course, not knowing what Doodleday is, Harvey drew anyway, only to find that his crayon fly has come to life in his kitchen! Using his quick wits and his pencil, he tries to make things right, but it turns out Doodleday is more complicated than he anticipates, and his mom must come to the rescue in a very clever way.
My son (age 4) and I loved the combination of cartoonish illustrations and Harvey’s living crayon drawings, and the humor of Doodleday gave us pause: if our drawings would come to life, what would we draw? (My son says, “Nothing.” I guess he’s not very daring.) Doodleday is humourous, creative, and sure to being smiles to the face of readers young and old.
