Comment

Oct 11, 2013
Once upon a time, a lonely little pencil lay alone for a long time on a piece of paper, doing nothing. Then, one day, it moved a little… and then a little more. Soon it began to draw. First it sketched a boy. It drew a dog for the boy, and a cat, too. When the dog and cat refused to eat black and white food, the pencil drew a paintbrush to add colour. After that, the pencil and the paintbrush created a bright, beautiful world of colour in which the boy and his pets could live and play - a town with people, animals, houses, roads and parks. However, the people in that world weren’t happy. They complained about how they were drawn – “My ears are too big!” “This hat looks silly!” and so on. The pencil created an eraser to remove their complaints, and all was well again … for a time. Suddenly, the eraser began to do its job all too well. It began to rub out houses, flowers and trees. The pencil needed to draw a plan, quickly! What would it do now? Reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon, the clever ending and the plot of Allan Ahlberg’s new picture book about imagination and creativity will keep children guessing what will happen next.