The Forgotten Crayon

A boxful of brand-new crayons is overjoyed when a boy named Lucas brings them home and starts using them to make pictures. Except that Lucas never, ever uses the white crayon for anything, and when he decides he needs a new set of crayons, that white crayon is still as tall and as clean as the day it was bought. Poor white crayon feels so dejected. But when a girl named Olivia stumbles upon the fresh white crayon, she’s delighted. She draws her own kinds of pictures, and this white crayon is exactly what she needs.

Yoko Maruyama is a self-taught artist who has long loved creating her own picture books. Her work eventually caught the eye of a Japanese publisher, and she soon got a chance to exhibit at the prestigious Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Ms. Maruyama also wrote and illustrated Little Santa for minedition.