BATH TIME FOR THE CRAYONS

The Crayon crew, having happily starred in more than two dozen books, now cleans up.

As the Crayons grab inner tubes and rubber duckies and prepare for bathtime, Daywalt keeps the laughs coming. Adult readers will be tickled by the many grown-up references: Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. But there’s plenty for younger readers: Esteban (“Pea Green” is crossed out and corrected on his label) wears a cape and snorkel as he perches on a bathtub faucet (later, he’ll sport the cape while playing pirate with Neon Red); a big Green shields the eyes of a small Green who is excitedly pointing to the spectacle of a naked (i.e., label-less) pale tan crayon; alongside Mermaid Purple, Starfish Orange, and Sea Turtle Green, a chunky My First Crayon offers an uplifting bit of wisdom about kindness. Some Crayons see bathtime as an opportunity to party, while others prefer to shower, but “they all have a splash”—interestingly, while wearing their labels. Jeffers again contributes his reliably droll crayon sketches, minimalist but with pleasing extras like a purple octopus popping up among the bathers.

Good clean fun for fans of this long-running franchise.