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Drew Daywalt is not just a children’s author, but is a film maker. He was born on January 5, 1970. He is the youngest of six children. His older brothers made him love horror films with comic books and horror movies. His love for children’s books comes from his mom reading to him. He lived in an old haunted house that was part of Underground Railroad.

Fun Facts about Drew Daywalt:

1. He has 65 awards for his children’s writing.

2. He lived in a haunted house when he was a child.

3. He wrote for Disney and Universal.

4. He has his own YouTube channel for his horror film shorts.

5. He was inspired to make films and write after watching Star Wars.

6. He gains inspiration for his stories by every day experiences.

7. His favorite color is black.

8. He has a German Shephard.

9. He went to Emmerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

10. He wrote an animated series called The Wacky World of Tex Avery.

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The Day the Crayons Quit – July 2013

The Day the Crayons Came Home – August 2015

The Crayons’ Book of Numbers – October 2016

The Crayons’ Book of Colors – October 2016

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors – April 2017

BB-8 on the Run – September 2017

Sleepy, the Goodnight Buddy - September 2018

The Epic Adventures of Huggie and Stick – October 2018

What Is Inside THIS Box? – March 2019

This is MY Fort! – March 2019

Forky in Craft Buddy Day – May 2019

My Tooth Is LOST! – September 2019

The Crayons’ Christmas – October 2019

Love from the Crayons – December 2019

The Crayons’ Book of Feelings – May 2021

Twinkle Twinkle Little Kid – August 2021

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Drew Daywalt is an award winning, Number 1 New York Times Best selling Childrens book author best known for The Day the Crayons Quit.

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Drew Daywalt (born January 5, 1970), is an American author and filmmaker. He is best known for writing the best-selling children's picture book The Day the Crayons Quit, and its sequel The Day the Crayons Came Home, both illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. Daywalt is also known for writing scripts for American television and Hollywood studio films, and for creating a number of short horror films for release on the internet.

Drew Daywalt was born in Hudson, Ohio on January 5, 1970, the youngest of six children, to Charlene (née Bable) and Charles Daywalt. "I grew up in a house in Hudson, Ohio, that was notoriously haunted. It looked like 'The Munsters.'" The house had a storied reputation in the local area, having supposedly been a stagecoach stop and a respite on the Underground Railroad at various times.

Daywalt's older brothers, however unintentionally, fostered his interest in scary stories. He relates, "My older brothers would always let me stay up way too late on Friday nights, drink Mountain Dew, watch horror movies. I was always getting into their comic books... Heavy Metal and Creepy and Tales from the Crypt. Also, at the time - this is going back to the mid 70s, almost into the early 80s - they were reading Tolkien and lot of that, so I had that as one side of my experiences. Growing up in a haunted house, watching horror movies with my older brothers and getting into their stash of horror magazines and comic books."

During the same period, Daywalt's mother, Charlene, would often come home from work and read to him from the works of well-known children's authors, like Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak. "I was constantly being inundated by other worlds...," said Daywalt. "A lot of what I do, whether it's either horror or children's lit, comes from that period in my life."

The author/filmmaker said he first realized that books and movies "...were actually written and created by other human beings..." at the age of 7. "It was 1977. Summer. And my big sister had taken me to see the first Star Wars film. As the credits rolled at the end, and I sat there trying to catch my breath and fully digest what I'd seen, I saw the screenplay credit. I knew then that I wanted to tell stories."

Daywalt's family eventually moved to nearby Stow, Ohio, where he attended Highland Elementary School. After graduating from Stow-Munroe Falls High School in 1988, Daywalt pursued creative writing at Emerson College in Boston.

"My concentrations were in screenwriting and children's literature...," Daywalt has stated. "Because at the time, my big plan was: if I really know children's literature and the history of fairy tales, and storytelling for kids in a meaningful and deep way, and I also learn screenwriting, I can go and work with Disney. That was my goal, was to get out [to Los Angeles] and work with Disney and Warner Brothers and write children's animation for TV and for film."

Filmmaking

Daywalt first achieved fame writing and directing short films with the horror filmmaking YouTube channel Fewdio, co-founded by Daywalt in 2007. In a 2009 interview with Dread Central, Daywalt described the origins of Fewdio, saying, "We were all a little bit burned out on dealing with studio execs around the time the strike hit. I had been a script writer for 17 years, and I'd written for and rewritten everyone in town so I was ready for something different. We had done the Axe Body campaign - 'How Dirty Boys Get Clean' - that pretty much set us up financially so we could get through the strike. That's when we decided to do what we loved as children: make horror films. We really wanted to do something for ourselves. I read everything I could about cameras and saved up a thousand bucks, and we shot our first short, 'Cursed.'" Daywalt made numerous shorts with Fewdio, and his 2009 horror short "Bedfellows" won the Chiller-Eyegore Award for Best Short Film. Drew Grant of Salon described Daywalt's work with the group as "the first really great horror films for the Internet era." The group disbanded in 2010, however, and Daywalt went on to found his own YouTube channel, Daywalt Fear Factory.

In 2012, Daywalt directed his first feature-length film, the made-for-television fantasy horror film Red Clover (released as Leprechaun's Revenge) for SyFy Channel. The film was met with mixed to negative reviews.

Writing Children's Books

The Day the Crayons Quit

Drew Daywalt's first children's picture book, The Day the Crayons Quit, with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers, was published by Philomel Books on June 27, 2013. The book was a critical and commercial success, earning positive responses from critics and selling over one-and-a-half million copies worldwide. The idea for the book originated with a simple box of crayons on Daywalt's desk, and his affinity for writing dialogue.

"I thought, 'Here I am, a grown-up - it was before I had kids - and I have a box of crayons on my desk.' It was still important enough for me in my life to have a box of crayons around. I didn't exactly know what to write about crayons, but I knew that it was something I wanted to approach.

"In Hollywood I had been a script doctor for years, fixing dialogue on movies. As a writer, one of my strengths is voice, so I thought, 'I'm going to give these crayons voices...' I decided I'd write them as monologues in the form of letters, in an epistolary style - basically all these crayons would chew this kid out because they didn't like the way they were being used. They were like letters of resignation."

Since the book's original publication in 2013, The Day the Crayons Quit has been almost unrivaled in sales within its genre. In 2015, Entertainment Weekly referred to it as the longest running title to ever appear on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's picture books, the book having held the weekly number-one spot on the list for over a year, and a total of 258 weeks on the list as of January 2019.

Critical response to the book has been largely positive. For instance, the starred review in Publishers Weekly stated, "Making a noteworthy debut, Daywalt composes droll missives that express aggravation and aim to persuade," while referring to the crayon characters as "...memorable personalities [that] will leave readers glancing apprehensively at their own crayon boxes."

In 2014, Danielle Herzog of The Washington Post joyfully related the experience of reading the book to her own children. "As I read each letter to my 6 and 3-year-old children," she wrote, "they howled with laughter. They loved the argument between the orange and yellow crayon over who gets to be the color of the sun, and they cracked up when the poor white crayon is only used to make pictures of cats and snow... But the best part came after the book was closed and put away. They rushed to their own crayon boxes, pulled out the same colors we read about, and started to color an array of pictures now gracing our refrigerator door."

The Day The Crayons Quit has won numerous children's book awards. In the year of its publication, 2013, the book won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Picture Book, was named Amazon's Best Children's Book, and was named to Time Magazine's list of The 100 Best Children's Books of All Time. Later, the book won the Texas Bluebonnet Award in 2015, having received 29,931 votes from Texas children. Daywalt and Jeffers received the award in person, on April 16, 2015 at the Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon. The book also won the 2015 Nevada Young Readers Award and the 2016 California Young Reader Medal.

In late July 2014, the film rights for The Day the Crayons Quit were purchased by Universal Studios, with Matt Lopez set to script and Madhouse Entertainment set to produce.

Other Children's Books

In October 2014, Daywalt announced a sequel to the book titled The Day the Crayons Came Home. It was published by Philomel Books on August 18, 2015, with illustrations once again by Oliver Jeffers. The book garnered critical acclaim and similarly enthusiastic sales, remaining on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's picture books for over 40 weeks.

In 2017, Daywalt wrote another picture book The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, illustrated by Adam Rex.

The Day the Crayons Quit, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers - Philomel Books, June 27, 2013 -

The Day the Crayons Came Home, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers - Philomel Books, August 18, 2015 -

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, illustrated by Adam Rex - Harper Collins/Balzer + Bray, April 4, 2017 -

Star Wars: BB-8 On the Run, illustrated by Matt Myers - Disney Lucasfilm Press, September 1, 2017 -

Sleepy, the Goodnight Buddy, illustrated by Scott Campbell - Disney-Hyperion, September 11, 2018 -

The Epic Adventures of Huggie & Stick, illustrated by David Spencer - Philomel Books, November 6, 2018 -

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Drew Daywalt (born January 5, 1970), is an American author and filmmaker. He is best known for writing the best-selling children's picture book The Day the Crayons Quit, and its sequel The Day the Crayons Came Home, both illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.

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Interview with Drew Daywalt by Writer's Digest

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Interview with Drew Daywalt by Writer's Digest

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Whether compelling children to squeal with laughter or pushing moviegoers to the brink of terror, Drew Daywalt's work is driven by an abiding desire to entertain.

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Drew Daywalt Talking About Creative Writing (YouTube)

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Drew Daywalt Talking About Creative Writing (YouTube)

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Every Crayon Counts

Show your support for the Crayons! Pick your color below, select a message (or write your own) and share your support on social media.

Sincerely,
The Bold Leaders of the Crayons Union

Step Two: Choose a message or write your own

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Show your support for the Crayons! Pick your color below, select a message (or write your own) and share your support on social media. Sincerely, The Bold Leaders of the Crayons Union Step Two: Choose a message or write your own

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Summary
Duncan loves to color. But, his crayons feel like they are overworked. His friends think they are misunderstood and underused.  The crayons write to Duncan to share their feelings. The crayons want Duncan to make changes to how he uses them. The Yellow and Orange crayons want Duncan to pick the true color of the sun. The Black Crayon complains it is tired of only being used to outline. The Purple Crayon tells Duncan to learn how to color in the lines. As Duncan reads the notes from each crayon, he finds a way to include each in a project.

Thoughts
Have you ever felt like your feelings are being ignored? Or like someone was not listening to the things you told them? In this story, Duncan listens to his pals, the crayons, as they share their feelings with him. Duncan realizes he has hurt his friends' feelings, and he creates an artwork including all of the crayons.

Awards
- Winner of over 60 national and international awards, including the coveted E.B. White Read-Aloud Award
- Amazon’s 2013 Best Picture Book of the Year
- A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2013
- Goodreads’ 2013 Best Picture Book of the Year
- One of TIME Magazine’s top 100 Children’s Books of All Time.

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Summary

Duncan gets postcards from all the crayons he has forgotten. Each crayon tells Duncan how they feel and miss him. Even his little brother’s crayon writes to him and wants help out of a sticky slobbery situation. Duncan understands now that all the crayons have feelings and need attention. The postcard from Neon Red talks about being left by the pool while on vacation. Pea Green says he wants to change his name because nobody likes Pea Green. These crayons want Duncan’s help. After he reads the postcards, he collects every crayon. The crayons were broken, lost, and forgotten. Each crayon looked different than what he remembered. Duncan found a new place to fit all of the crayons so they can feel loved.

Thoughts

We have all felt left out or lost. Many of us have been hurt by the words or actions of others. In listening to his crayon friends, Duncan learns how words can hurt. He also learns how the act of caring for your friends can make all the difference. We can all learn something from Duncan and his friends in this fun story about feelings.

Awards
- A Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Book of 2015 / A TIME Magazine Top 10 Children’s Book of 2015
- “Highly anticipated (yes, even for adults)” —Entertainment Weekly
- Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Picture Book of 2015!
- A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2015!
- One of Parents Magazine‘s Ten Best Children’s Books of 2015!
- A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year!

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Summary

This story is not your normal superhero book! Rock, Paper, and Scissors want to find an opponent worthy to battle. As Rock is on the journey to find an opponent, he battles a Clothes Pin and an Apricot. Rock sees no other worthy opponent in the backyard. Paper looked for an opponent that can outsmart him in the office. He battled the Computer Printer and a half-eaten Trail Mix. Scissors chose to battle Tape and frozen dinosaur Chicken Nuggets. All three were victorious in their battles. All three warriors meet up. They have a battle with each other to determine the best warrior.

Thoughts

I love how this is a story about a game played throughout the world in backyards and at recess. Everyone has their superpower and weakness. In this story, three unlikely superheroes search for someone who can beat them. Each one with a different thing they are good at doing. In the end, they all learn how people with different strengths can come together and complement each other as friends.

Award
- New York Times Bestseller! 5 Starred Reviews!

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Storytime Video: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors with Drew Daywalt

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Storytime Video: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors with Drew Daywalt

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Storytime Video: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors

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Summary
In this story, we meet a little boy named Roderick. He loves to talk his parents’ ears off to stay awake at bedtime. Roderick gets a very talkative stuffed animal that looks like a bear and moose to help him sleep. Sleepy the Goodnight Buddy asks Roderick for so many things to stay awake. Roderick stays awake to answer Sleepy’s questions. He notices that Sleepy does the same thing he does to his parents. Roderick starts to get angry at the shenanigans that Sleepy pulls to stay away. Soon enough, Roderick is so tired that he falls asleep.

Thoughts
We all know what it’s like to want to stay up late and have more fun, right? But we know that at some point we have to go to bed. Rodrick is like many of us when we ask our moms and dad’s questions and playing games trying to stay awake. But when Rodrick is finally ready to go to sleep, he gets to feel what he puts his parents through as sleepy his goodnight buddy keeps him up. This giggly crazy story is everything the best bedtime story should be.

No Awards

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Summary
In this adventure story, BB-8 has a very top-secret mission from his friend, Poe. The two friends get separated. While trying to complete his mission, BB-8 meets many strangers that need help. BB-8 conflicted on what he should do to help them. He questions if he should keep moving so he can complete his mission. His friend, Poe, always told him, “It’s easy Buddy, you can good things, and good things will come back to you.” This quote helps BB-8 decide on what to do. He chooses to help those who need his help even if he is unable to complete his mission.

Thoughts
Everyone needs help sometimes. This is why we should remember to help others and to let others help us, just like good friends do. In this story, BB8 takes us on a journey of helping others and being a good friend. A great story mixed with a favorite series.

No Awards

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Let's Read Stories: BB-8 on the Run (YouTube)

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Let's Read Stories: BB-8 on the Run (YouTube)