click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) Edwin Binney in his dark, gritty, smoke-filled factory that produced black inks, black dyes, and black pigments for industrial uses, day after day after day…
The Crayon Man -written by Natascha Biebow & illustrated by Steven Salerno -published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
This is the success story of American inventor Edwin Binney -manufacturer in the early 1900’s of black inks, black dyes, and black pigments -until the day he was inspired to invent and produce the first smudge-free COLOR crayons made just for kids… which he and his wife named CRAYOLA crayons. The initial box had just 8 colors and cost 5¢. Crayola Crayons went on to become one of the most iconic and popular brands ever.
“Salerno’s illustrations reflect the formality of the era, which he playfully disrupts with splashes of color: in one spread, a line of pigment-spattered workers end a day of crayon experimentation. Readers are likely to be fascinated by the process of “grinding, grinding, grinding up rocks and minerals into fine powders” and the rich colors that result” -Publishers Weekly
“Biebow’s first nonfiction picture book flows with conversational smoothness ... The attractive full-page -and, accordingly, brightly colorful - illustrations mix realism and whimsy" - Booklist
"In this chatty, engaging picture book, Biebow provides the historical context around the invention of Crayola crayons....What [Caldecott Medalist] Jon Klassen achieves emotionally in his characters' eyes, Salerno manages with eyebrows here" -Kirkus Reviews
-2021-22 Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award (3rd-5th grade)
-2021 Winner of the Grand Canyon Reader Award for non-fiction (Arizona)
-2020 Winner of the Irma Simonton & James Black Award, Excellence in Children’s Literature
-2020 NSTA Best STEM Books award list
-Black-Eyed Susan Book Award list (Maryland)
-A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
-2019 An Amazon “Best of the Month” selection in Children’s non-fiction
-2020 North Carolina Children’s Book Award list
-CFSID Horned Toad Tale Award list (Texas)
-Charter Oak, Children’s Book Award list (Connecticut)
-Beehive Award for Children’s Informational Books, Honor Book (Utah)
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: cover of The Crayon Man -depicting Edwin Binney and his incredibly popular invention, Crayola Crayons for kids…
-A Junior Library Guild GOLD STANDARD Selection
-2020 Winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature
see Steven’s complete list of published picture books to date
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) illustration showing Edwin’s back yard -and the colorful world of sea, sky, flowers, and birds that all inspired him to develop the first color crayons just for kids.
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) illustration of Edwin listening to and contemplating the various suggestions from his family and friends…
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) illustration showing Edwin struck by the idea of creating color crayons for kids… inspired by his love of colorful flowers and everything else in his colorful world. This would totally change the direction of his factory =which up until then was only producing black inks, black dyes, black pigments, etc…
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) illustration depicting Edwin’s factory at the start of the testing… which involved grinding various rocks and minerals for their specific colors to create the pigments used in the experimental prototype color crayons.
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) For many months Edwin’s workers went home each day covered in splotches and splashes of color. In this scene we see some of the workers in a line heading out the door at 5pm… Wondering what that odd looking metal thing is the man on the right side is carrying? That’s what a lunch pail looked like in 1903.
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: one of the intermediate stage sketches where placement of the text has been determined too… depicting a scene in 1903 when the very first production of Crayola Crayons are packed and delivered by horse and wagon… The box of 8 colors cost just 5¢. The coin seen in the upper left is what a nickel looked like back in 1903.
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: vignette that appears on the back cover -of Edwin standing in his magnificent flower garden, which was one of the inspirations for creating Crayola Crayons…
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man
click upper right corner of images to enlarge
above: (cropped view) of the last illustration appearing in the book, depicting contemporary kids drawing and coloring with a vast array of Crayola Crayon color choices, far beyond the original 8 colors first introduced way back in 1903 costing only 5 cents!
see Steven’s blog post on making the illustrations for The Crayon Man