Perfectionism is increasingly common in school-age children and often comes with a “pathological, repetitive worry” about falling short, according to Gordon Flett, a psychology professor and researcher at York University in Canada, quoted in U.S. News & World Report. We need an equivalent rise in resources that help kids who have high expectations of themselves, so that they can understand the beauties of imperfection, the pleasures of play, and the value of sharing with friends.
Poppy’s Perfect Crayons gently and compassionately approaches this challenge for readers ages four to eight. Poppy is highly protective of her new box of fancy crayons — so much so that she doesn’t want to use them because they are “too perfect to spoil.” So while her friends scribble and scrawl around her, she sits on the floor gazing into her crayon box with an anxious expression on her face.
But these are genuinely caring friends. A mouse named Millie, who has worn her crayons down to half their size, gives Poppy some of her crayons when she realizes that Poppy doesn’t want to ruin her own. Poppy notices that “there isn’t much left of it, so it didn’t matter if she wasted it on a mistake.”
One by one, other friends come forward with offers of crayons, leading Poppy to learn many new, beneficial things. If she presses down hard on a crayon and it breaks, for instance, she now has two crayons! And if a crayon gets flat, each stroke she makes with it covers more paper.
She hits a new level of crisis when she needs a touch of lilac to finish her picture. No one except Poppy has this color, which would mean breaking into her perfect box. What she does then, which we won’t give away, is a pure delight.
Author and illustrator Sally Anne Garland grew up in the Highlands of Scotland and studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art. She has many years of experience as a children’s illustrator, which show in this book’s colorful expressions of feelings, friendship, and acceptance.
