Through Mon 5/31

The 2013 children’s book The Day The Crayons Quit revolves around a little boy who opens his box of crayons to color, only to find that the crayons are all complaining about their jobs — the blue wants to draw something besides water, the black is tired of only being used to outline things. With all the crayons refusing to work together, how can anything get done?

The message of the story, intended for grades K-3, is obvious.

The Day the Crayons Quit is also the focus of Main Street Kent’s next Story Walk, a series of events intended to provide diversion, fresh air, exercise ad an educational opportunities for families and get them engaged with various community businesses. This walk runs from May 1-31 (Memorial Day). In addition, this new Story Walk will be accessible to children with differing abilities.

Here’s how it works. Different downtown businesses will have pages from the story in their window; families can walk around and read each page in succession. There will also be picture-based summary sentences for visual support and to improve access for kids who use augmentative and alternative communication methods. There’ll also be “interactive mystery flaps” so kids can be actively involved. And the book’s crayon characters will be hiding inside participating businesses so kids can hunt them down.

In conjunction with the Story Walk, the Kent Free is hosting a coloring contest. They’ll have coloring pages and crayon packs for pickup throughout May. Prizes will be awarded for ages 0-3, 4-6, and 7-10.

Printed maps of the locations are available at McKay Brcker Framing & Gallery where the story starts, or downloaded from mainstreetkent.org/events/story-walk-kent.