By: Michael Hall
Artistic medium: cut paper and crayon drawings
"He’s not sharp enough; He’s not bright enough; He needs to press harder — I began to hear voices from my past. I knew that, at some level, this was my story.
I am dyslexic. As a child, I didn’t think of myself as mislabeled; I thought I wasn’t very bright." -Michael Hall
One of the first things to notice about this book is that the cover is quite simple in illustrations and text. The title "Red" is blue and the statements by the orange and yellow crayon foreshadow what the reader is about to read about. When taking off the book cover, I noticed that there was no text on it, rather it was sporadic coloring of blue crayon all over. To me it almost is what I would see if I asked a little kid that they need to color the whole page and out of frustration they quickly scribble to fill the page. Made me wonder what this meant in regards of the story I was about to read.
The story of a mislabeled crayon that seemed to accept his mislabel as his identity becomes transformed to accept its identity. As the story continues, crayons around him tried to help Red do his best to draw and color in Red. It is like they couldn’t see beyond the outside label that wasn’t representative on what was happening inside the label (Blue crayon). Everyone that was trying to help Red tried covering up its mistakes and it seemed the Red crayon was frustrated. The Red crayon didn’t understand why his label wasn’t matching what he was demonstrating.
Red represents a metaphor for people that are struggling to find themselves when they are continually told and believed to be helped to be “normal”. Finally, when the Berry colored crayon helped Red accept his difference, the Red crayon found why he was different and began experiencing self-identity in actually being a blue crayon. All of the other crayons demonstrated acceptance only when Red demonstrated his coloring and drawing abilities of things that are characterized as blue. This theme of finding self-identity through diversity has many corresponding examples that students may have in real life. When someone is given a label, just like Red did that doesn’t match, it seems that everyone around the individual is stuck on the label. They don’t see beyond the label. I feel like this idea of labels can be discussed as labels of sexuality, ethnicity, race, gender, and disability.
Students can discuss all of these societal controversial topics that relate to Red's story. Students can incorporate their empathy of Red as it was mislabeled and how it was frustrating to not represent what it was on the inside.
The illustrations that go through the book are reflective of Red’s emotions and ways the other crayons believed they were helping him. Below I included two pictures. The first picture illustrates how the crayons commented on Red’s (dis)ability of not being representative of his color. Their remarks are hurtful and demeaning because their ideas are stuck on Red’s label and worth. The second illustration is near the end of the book when the other crayons come to find out that Red truly was Blue and that now his strengths in drawing and coloring outweigh his label. It seems like now Red has more worth and acceptance from the crayon community. The other crayon’s comments are positive and value Red’s difference in a new way.
Stuck on the label...
Beyond the label...
I believe that children will be able to easily relate to this book because of how the illustrations show drawings that are similar to young children’s drawings. They seem simple. Some may say they even look abstract. These “scribbles”, pictures, and shapes are not distracting from the text. It also helps that some of the text looks like handwriting with pencil. It truly looks like the author, Michael Hall, is writing the story because it is his story. #OwnVoices. As mentioned in the first quote in this blog, Michael Hall reflects on his growth of a student that has dyslexia.
I think it is also entertaining to have crayons personified. One of my favorite personified crayons were Red’s grandparents who were shorter from being used a lot and are trying their best to help Red be “ordinary”. When these crayons are personified, children can relate themselves to the emotions that go along with comments that Red received. A classroom discussion on how outside appearances are different than who someone is truly on the inside is important. There is always benefits with discussing how norms can define society, which then causes those that don't fit exact labels of what they are stereotyped to portray more frustrated in not being accepted by their mislabel. Helping students understand that everyone is diverse, different, unique in their own ways allows for students to evaluate their comments and behaviors towards others.
Become empathetic to Red and how although the crayon tried its best to conform to drawing in red because of its label, it couldn’t. How would that make you feel? To show you are who you are, but no one believes you?