“And my second reaction was that Aaron’s story reminded me of a paranoid thriller-in the vein of The Twilight Zone or Hitchcock-and images began popping into my head of a noir world, with spooky shadows, and Jasper’s mind playing tricks on him. “My first reaction was that Aaron had come up with an idea that never would have occurred to me, and that was exciting,” Brown said.

At one point I considered the idea of a squirrel stalked by acorns-but then landed on a bunny stalked by carrots.”īrown, who also writes and illustrates his own books, was immediately drawn to the Creepy Carrots! manuscript when he received it from Justin Chanda, S&S BYR senior v-p and publisher. “I thought the concept of a cute and adorable bunny stalked by something ridiculous would be funny, and I struggled to come up with a story I could wrap my arms around. “I started to think about classic kids’ book tropes, and I wanted to find one that I could spin on its ear,” he recalled. Reynolds also grappled with creating the ideal protagonist when he initially conceived of the notion of fusing funny and frightening in a story. How to give kids the willies but keep them laughing-that’s the balance I wrestled with.” “Balancing dark and creepy with funny and ridiculous is key when you’re writing a horror story for the picture-book audience-which is kind of a weird goal to begin with! The concept of something following you in the dark is scary, but the fact that it’s carrots, glow-in-the-dark underpants, or a crayon is hilarious and diffuses the creepiness. “I loved being creeped out by books, but not terrified,” he said. In the trilogy, Reynolds combines spine-tickling and spine-tingling elements, a mix he appreciated as a young reader. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers has announced an August 2022 pub date and an announced 500,000-copy first printing for Creepy Crayon!, whose cover is pictured here for the first time. In Creepy Crayon!, the rabbit's third misadventure, the beleaguered hero confronts a new nemesis-a know-it-all purple crayon that aces all of Jasper’s schoolwork, but refuses to quit despite the conscience-plagued student’s desperate attempts to dispense with it (even melting it in the microwave and flushing it down the toilet). Together, the two titles have sold more than one million copies in the U.S. Brown picked up a Caldecott Honor for that picture book, which was followed in 2017 by Creepy Pair of Underpants!, chronicling Jasper’s battle with a persistent pair of glow-in-the-dark undies that reappears each time he tries to dispose of them.

In 2012’s Creepy Carrots!, written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown, a bunch of cranky carrots stalk the ravenous bunny after he repeatedly raids the carrot patch. Jasper Rabbit has not had an easy go of it.

Aaron reynolds creepy crayon