Customer Reviews

Harold's Trip to the Sky

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a child between the age of 6 and 8, I remember going to the library with my mother and checking out each of the adventure's that Harold had. I must have checked them all out more than ten times each. The concept of a small boy using his purple crayon to imagine many things was so fun. The vocabulary is suitable for the reccommended age group. The pictures are great. The spectacular thing and most valuable lesson is that it not only teaches one how to read, but it also says it's o.k. to have an imagination. Today I still remember how much I loved Harold and his purple crayon. I plan to buy all of the Harold books not only because of my love for them, but to one day share them with my children.

We just bought this for our son and he's a bit too young to understand this so the review is for adults, really. I found that this story didn't capture the imagination and seemed to try too hard to be clever. It seems to play too much on the winning aspects of "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and wasn't so innovative on its own. As a parent, I couldn't stand to read this more than once to our son. Such a disappointment.

Harold's Trip to the Sky, the third in the Purple Crayon series, falls below the standard set by its predecessors, Harold and the Purple Crayon and Harold's Fairy Tale.

While the first two are clearly the free flowing products of an unfettered imagination, this one seems forced and formulaic, almost as if responding to the demands of a publisher to repeat the magic one more time. Harold's Trip to the Sky aims high, but ultimately falls flat.

Published in 1957, the year that the first Soviet Sputnik blasted off into orbit, Trip to the Sky seems oddly dated as compared to the timelessness of Purple Crayon and Fairy Tale. This manifests in some odd disconnects. For example we read that Harold "...remembered how the government has fun in the desert. It shoots off rockets". Presumably this refers to the pre Cape Canaveral days when the nascent US space program launched from desert locations. But how many readers (especially young ones) will connect with this today?

Anyway, getting beyond these problems and the angst of Martians, UFO's and the like, Harold still manages at times to enchant. And so we read, for instance, "He was sure any man on Mars would be cordial to a visitor like Harold who had come all this way to chat with him". I particularly like how Harold climbs down from Mars on the stars, drawing a stairway from heaven with the purple crayon as he goes. And when our little hero finally makes it home, he is startled by something he draws that seems for a moment like a flying saucer. But as we learn, "He was mistaken. It wasn't a saucer. It was an oatmeal bowl". And, significantly, "Harold happened to like hot breakfasts".

So in the end, all is well.

Judged on its own this book would fare better. However, in the shadow of the first two Purple Crayon masterpieces, three stars is all that I can muster.

Our son loves Harold and the Purple Crayon, so we ordered this Trip to the Sky story. At first I didn't find it as clever, but the more we read it, the more our son enjoys it. We love the imaginative exploration, Harold's ingenuity, and the simple yet unique drawings. The move from night to day is wonderfully sudden, and the play with words once again delightful. The dated paranoia about u.f.o.s is amusing to us, and it's the perfect kind of "scary" for a not-quite three-year-old.

My toddler and I love these books. The originals by Crocket Johnson are more imaginative than the newer full color ones. That is why I give this all five stars. Brilliant!

This is our favorite Harold book. When my son asks for Harold, this story is usually the one he's thinking of. And there's some humor for the parent as well, which I appreciate.

My 3yo son loves this book, but on occasion is pretty spooked by the "thing" in the flying saucer.

Harold and his majic crayon will take you and your child on majic adventures. As your child's imagination grows you will find the secret behind the majic crayon that will change your life forever. Harold has many books that take you on many trips and many adventures but never without his majic crayon. What is his secret? It is your resposibility to interduce your child to Harold and the Purple Cryon.

Book arrived in "falling-apart condition". Literally. The binding wasn't even attached to the cover. But, a 2 yr old doesn't care, and its one of her favorite bedtime books, and thats all that matters to me.