Harold and the Purple Crayon: Harold Finds a Friend

by Kevin Murawski (Illustrator), Liza Baker

Harold's favorite toy is his stuffed animal, Lilac, but what Harold wants is a real live pet. When Harold enters the world of his imagination he discovers that Lilac has turned into a running, jumping, ball-catching sheepdog!

Genres: Picture Books, Adventure, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harold is a small boy who uses his magic crayon to bring his imaginative ideas to life. In this adventure, he seeks a new friend because he’s lonely. He draws a few different dogs before drawing his stuffed animal dog into a real dog. Harold has a bit of an adventure before he eventually returns to his bed and falls asleep. The story is cute enough and I appreciate the encouragement of imagination and drawing/art. I do wish there was a little more substance to the story, it’s a bit too simplistic and predictable if you’ve read any other Harold books. However those features are also something that makes it appealing to my 3 & 5 year old children.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy read with my emerging reader, to capitalize on her recent interest in this classic character. As a read aloud, she was happy with the dog. As a parent who’s been doing all the reading teaching, it suffers from my usual annoyances with early reader books, which is that they throw in all sorts of words that are too hard to decode for a kid who is still trying to figure out CVC words. (I realize this one is a level 2 reader, but the point stands.) It also lacked the simple charm of the original series, both in tone and in illustrations.

[Sarahlucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harold gets super creative once he finds a purple crayon and lets his imagination take him to new worlds. I loved how mischievous and artistic Harold is. The book made me want to draw all over the walls, but my mom stopped me before I was able too. I hope the spirit of Harold leaves with me for the rest of my life. Love live Harold and his purple colored crayon.

[Ayanna]

Ithought this book was a good book to read to your young children. Its a fun, and adventureous story about a boy who finds this dog and plays with him. The little boy Harold has a wild imagination. It teaches young kids how to visualize and see the action going on in the story.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harold becomes an easy reader! He wants a dog and draws a few..until he realizes that he had the right dog all along.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this really encourages my son to use his imagination to make his fun. How adorable!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. I liked that he and Lilac threw the ball and played. Macario, age 8

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harold gets out of bed at night. Kate tells me that children are not supposed to do that.