The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons

In The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons we meet Edwin Binney, who saw color everywhere. Color made him really, really happy! But his company only sold carbon black, a new pigment made from the soot of burning oil, so all he saw was the color black all day long. Edwin Binney invented a gray slate pencil, and children loved it. He invented white chalk, and teachers loved it. He invented a black wax crayon, and people loved it. His wife, Alice wanted him to invent a cheaper crayon for children. Edwin listened to his wife and started his work. With his team, in his top-secret lab, Edwin made a top-secret formula which would one day become crayons.

I liked The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons because it is nonfiction and educational. Crayons are something we have all used and are so common, but I have never thought about how they were invented. This book showed me how crayons were invented. I didn’t know how much work it took to make one small crayon. I loved the illustrations. They are colorful and detailed. I think it would have been really neat if the illustrations would have been colored with Crayola crayons.