Drew Daywalt facts for kids
Drew Daywalt (born January 5, 1970) is an American author and filmmaker. He is famous for writing the best-selling children's picture book The Day the Crayons Quit. He also wrote its sequel, The Day the Crayons Came Home. Both books were illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. Daywalt has also written scripts for TV shows and Hollywood movies. He is also known for creating many short horror films for the internet.
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Early Life and Inspiration
Drew Daywalt was born in Hudson, Ohio, on January 5, 1970. He was the youngest of six children. He grew up in a house that he described as "notoriously haunted." This house looked like something from a spooky movie.
His older brothers helped him get interested in scary stories. He would stay up late with them, watching horror movies. He also read their comic books like Heavy Metal and Tales from the Crypt. At the same time, his mother read him books by famous children's authors. These included Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and Maurice Sendak. Daywalt says that both the horror and children's stories from his childhood influence his work today.
Daywalt realized that books and movies were created by people when he was seven. This happened after he saw the first Star Wars movie in 1977. When the credits rolled, he saw the "screenplay" credit. He knew then that he wanted to tell stories.
Later, his family moved to Stow, Ohio. After high school, Daywalt studied creative writing at Emerson College in Boston. He focused on screenwriting and children's literature. His goal was to work with companies like Disney and Warner Bros. to write children's animation.
Career Highlights
Making Films and Videos
Drew Daywalt first became known for writing and directing short films. He co-founded a YouTube channel called Fewdio in 2007. He and his friends wanted to make horror films for fun. In 2009, his horror short "Bedfellows" won an award for Best Short Film. One reviewer said his work with Fewdio was "the first really great horror films for the Internet era." The group stopped working together in 2010. Daywalt then started his own YouTube channel, Daywalt Fear Factory.
In 2012, Daywalt directed his first full-length movie. It was a fantasy horror film called Red Clover (also known as Leprechaun's Revenge). It was made for the SyFy Channel.
Writing Children's Books
The Day the Crayons Quit
Drew Daywalt's first children's picture book was The Day the Crayons Quit. Oliver Jeffers did the illustrations. It was published on June 27, 2013. The book was a huge success. Critics loved it, and it sold over 1.5 million copies around the world.
The idea for the book came from a box of crayons on Daywalt's desk. He thought, "What if these crayons could talk?" He decided to write the story as letters from the crayons. In these letters, the crayons complain to a boy named Duncan about how he uses them. They are like "letters of resignation."
The Day the Crayons Quit has been one of the best-selling children's books. In 2015, Entertainment Weekly said it was the longest-running book on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's picture books. It stayed at number one for over a year.
Many critics praised the book. Publishers Weekly said Daywalt wrote funny letters that showed the crayons' frustration. They also said the crayon characters were "memorable." A writer for The Washington Post shared how her children loved the book. They laughed at the arguments between the orange and yellow crayons. After reading, her children rushed to their own crayons to color new pictures.
The Day The Crayons Quit has won many awards. In 2013, it won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Picture Book. Amazon named it their Best Children's Book. Time magazine also put it on its list of the 100 Best Children's Books of All Time. In 2015, it won the Texas Bluebonnet Award. It also won the Nevada Young Readers Award in 2015. In 2016, it won the California Young Reader Medal and the Young Hoosier Book Award.
In 2014, Universal Studios bought the rights to make The Day the Crayons Quit into a film.
Other Children's Books
In October 2014, Daywalt announced a sequel to his popular book. It was called The Day the Crayons Came Home. Philomel Books published it on August 18, 2015. Oliver Jeffers again provided the illustrations. This book also received great reviews and sold very well. It stayed on The New York Times Best Seller list for over 40 weeks.
In 2017, Daywalt wrote another picture book called The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors. Adam Rex illustrated this book. It won the Young Hoosier Book Award for 2019–2020.
