More Than Peach by Bellen Woodard and Fanny Liem - NO

More Than Peach: changing the world one crayon at a time by Bellen Woodard, illustrated by Fanny Liem. PICTURE BOOK. Scholastic, 2022. $18. 9781338809275

BUYING ADVISORY: NO (book and back matter contain falsehoods)

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

A young black girl gets asked to “pass the skin-colored crayon” and it bothers her. She think s about what she can do and hits upon a way to gently get her friends and classmates to think about “skin-colored” in a different way.

While the book is just fine, I am miffed by the fact that this girl, the author, presents herself as the first person whoever thought there should be more skin-colored crayons available. Crayola removed “flesh” as a crayon name back in 1962. I can’t find the name of the social researcher who brought this to Crayola’s attention, but maybe someone else knows. And in 1992 Crayola introduced their first multicultural pack of crayons. This author is by no means the first crayon activist. I resent her implying that she is and that Scholastic gave her a platform to perpetuate the lie.

Cindy Mitchell, Library Teacher, MLS