Philip Nel's Blog

Crockett Johnson would turn 119 today, and Harold (of purple crayon fame) turns 70 this fall. What does it mean to celebrate Johnson or Harold today?

As I argue in “Turn off AI. Pick up a crayon,” it means to celebrate human creativity. In this piece, I suggest that Harold and the Purple Crayon is in fact “a manifesto for human creativity disguised as a children’s picture book”:

The opening pages of Harold and the Purple Crayon illustrate why throwing prompts into AI does not create art. Art begins by facing an empty canvas. Maybe you scribble a bit—as Harold does. Only after four pages of zig-zagging experiments does Harold pause and decide to take his line for a walk in the moonlight. Traveling along the line of your imagination requires your full attention. Resist the algorithm’s allure and become an active dreamer.

If you’ve ever wondered what Crockett Johnson (or Harold) might think of AI or if you too are exasperated by the relentless AI hype, then you might enjoy “Turn off AI. Pick up a crayon.”

You might also enjoy my small book, How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children’s Classic (Oxford UP, 2024).

More on AIAgainst AI. A collection of resources for educators.How to resist the lure of AI (8 Aug. 2025) Video by me.Why not write with AI? (20 Aug. 2024). Essay and video by me.More recent writing about Harold (by me):“Small Book, Big Ideas: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Art of Imagination.” LitHub, 28 Jul. 2025.“Meditations in purple,” The Oxford University Press Blog, 27 Jan. 2025.“His crayon is purple – but is Harold a Black boy?,” The Conversation, 16 Aug. 2024.“The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen,” School Library Journal, 8 Aug. 2024. My review of the film.More about Harold (on this blog)

I’m omitting the birthday posts (below), and at least half of those are also about Harold.

Unboxing How to Draw the World (18 Feb. 2025). Why make an unboxing video when the world is on fire? And why so late — wasn’t the book released in December?How to Draw the World: Book Trailer (30 July 2024). The story of how I made the trailer.Harold vs. Donald, Round 2 (9 Sept. 2019). What if Harold were a malignant narcissist? And the US president? Cartoonists and satirists explore the idea.A Manifesto for Children’s Literature; or, Reading Harold as a Teenager (in The Iowa Review) (21 Sept. 2015). An essay (by me), inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon.The Archive of Childhood, Part 1: Crayons (27 Dec 2014). How encountering a box of crayons from my childhood activates memories. I wish I had kept that entire box. I saved only the purple ones.How Much Is That Crayon in the Window? Harold at Compas, L.A. (10 May 2014). A Harold-themed window display.The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part II: Picture Books (23 June 2013). Picture books inspired by Harold? Some, definitely. Others may be.Harold and the Purple TARDIS (2 April 2012). Harold as Dr. Who.Harold and the School Mural (22 Jan. 2012). A Harold mural on the walls of the Ben Franklin School in Norwalk, Connecticut. (Crockett Johnson lived in South Norwalk — a.k.a. Rowayton.)The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part I: Comics & Cartoons (13 Sept. 2010). Comics and cartoons that pay tribute to Harold. One of the earliest posts on my blog.More Crockett Johnson Birthday posts (also on this blog)Happy Birthday, Crockett Johnson… and Harold! (24 Oct. 2024). The Neverending Crayon; or, Happy Crockett Johnson’s Birthday! (20 Oct. 2023). A photo of Johnson laughing, and reflections on Johnson’s influence on me.Harold and Maurice (20 Oct. 2022). Maurice Sendak’s signed copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the Rosenbach’s betrayal of Sendak’s memory.The Lost Film Footage of Crockett Johnson (20 Oct. 2021). The challenges of finding Johnson on film, and a still image that might be him.Barnaby Vol. 4 is here! (20 Oct. 2020). Barnaby, Volume Four: 1948-1949 was published in 2020.Barnaby, Vol. 4: 1948-1949 (20 Oct. 2019). More on this book.Harold and the Deluxe Edition (20 Oct. 2018). In the second of two birthday posts from 2018, an announcement! Harold’s Imagination, a collection featuring three Harold stories, plus an illustrated Afterword by Yours Truly… featuring a photograph of Johnson’s nephew Harold!Donald and the Golden Crayon (20 Oct. 2018). In the first of two birthday posts from 2018, an interview with the author and publisher of Donald and the Golden Crayon – the first book-length political satire inspired by a Crockett Johnson book.Crockett Johnson Tells the Story of Money (20 Oct. 2017). A look at the very first children’s book that Johnson illustrated – Constance Foster’s This Rich World: The Story of Money (1943).How to Read Harold (20 Oct. 2016). A short excerpt from a book I’m working on – How to Read Harold: A Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson and the Making of a Children’s Classic.Harold is 60. So is his purple crayon (20 Oct. 2015). On the occasion of Johnson’s 109th birthday, tributes to Harold from Lane Smith, Bob Staake, and others.Harold Around the World (20 Oct. 2014). Harold and the Purple Crayon has been published in many languages. Here are some of the covers.Happy 107th Birthday, Crockett Johnson! (20 Oct. 2013). A photograph of Johnson laughing, plus news of contemporary Johnson exhibit and talk.Crockett Johnson in New York: A Walking Tour, in Honor of His 106th Birthday (20 Oct. 2012). The childhood homes of Crockett Johnson.A Title Is to Read (20 Oct. 2011). Announcing the title of my biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss.Happy Birthday, Crockett Johnson! (20 Oct. 2010). Newspaper ad for Johnson’s Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley (1944).

Back in April, US Defense Secretary Pete “Signal” Hegseth ordered 381 books removed from the US Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library. These included works read by young people—Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give—and scholarship on books for young people, such as Robin Bernstein’s Racial Innocence and my Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books.

The editor of Bookbird, the journal of the International Board of Books for Young People, asked me to write about it. I did, and the piece — “Being Banned Is Not an Award” — came out last week.

Though I have written about censorship before, during the editing process, I gained a deeper understanding of how censorship can, in some circumstances, be strategic. And I have lately wondered if I should be more strategic.

As we edited my piece, the editor worried that my comments about Pete Hegseth constituted libel. The editor also thought this sentence, from late in the piece, potentially libelous: “The Trump administration is rewriting all government websites to align with whatever lies it’s currently promoting.” However, as I told the editor, libel is a false statement that may damage a person’s reputation. My statements were true. Of course, America’s thin-skinned, whiny orange overlord considers all criticism to be libel. But I didn’t think we should use his fragile ego as a standard for determining “libel” or anything else.

The editor asked if I could make some changes, and suggested that I try to make the piece “‘timeless’ so that it could be read universally, regardless of time and place.” Though I made other changes, I said no, that I could not make it “timeless.” I could certainly aim for greater clarity, but I could strive for timelessness. The piece addresses a current event — that fact itself immediately indicates its time and place.

The editor responded, apologizing for the ”timeless” advice, and explained “I grew up in a country where criticizing government (at that time) can lead to disappearance of the person, so people had to learn how to do it in a certain ways.” As he said, “There is a certain balance between being personal enough but also impersonal enough to protect themselves.”

I then understood that I was wrong. I had thought that I was facing editorial censorship on a piece about censorship. But the editor was proposing censorship as a strategy for speaking out safely amidst autocracy. He was trying to save me from myself.

Because I grew up in a country that taught me I had a right to freedom of speech (even if that right has always been imperfectly upheld), I decided not to follow his advice. After all, the laziest search of my published writings, my blog, my social media shows me to be a critic of the Trump regime — going back to at least 2016. The title of one of my pieces is “Trump Is a Liar. Tell Children the Truth.” So, I reasoned, it’s too late for me. If the regime decides that I fall into its zone of interest, there’s ample evidence of my anti-fascist writings for them to persecute me.

Cartoon by the great Ann Telnaes. Subscribe to her Open Windows Substack.

This month, I have had moments where I’ve wondered if I should have followed the editor’s advice. It’s less the attempt to silence Jimmy Kimmel, and more that it’s now apparently dangerous both to condemn all political violence and to acknowledge that, in the case of Mr. Kirk’s murder, the target of said violence was a professional bigot who encouraged violence for his own ends.

The late Mr. Kirk advocated “lethal force” against immigrants, said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was “a huge mistake,” said that journalist Joy Reid, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson “do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously” – and so they “had to go and take a white person’s job.” He called Democrats “maggots, vermin, and swine,” promoted lies about the 2020 election, called members of the LGBTQ+ community “freaks,” and claimed that Islamic areas were “a threat to America.” He alleged that Haitian immigrants were “raping your women and hunting you down at night.” He blamed anti-whiteness on the “Jewish donors” who, he claimed, funded it. He even said that “it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”

Though his views ranged from false to dangerous, his murder was unequivocally bad. Whether the target is Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman or conservative activist Charlie Kirk, all political violence is bad.

But I do understand why all members of groups he disparaged might not mourn his death.

As for me, though I do not mourn what he stood for, I do mourn his death. To be shot is terrifying, and to be shot in public is even more so: no one should have to suffer that end. I also mourn for the man he could have become. I believe in people’s capacity to learn, and to change — if given the opportunity. He no longer has the opportunity to put his considerable talents to better use. I mourn that, too.

It should not be controversial to say these things. Just as it should not be controversial to quote Mr. Kirk’s words — those are his legacy.

Ta-Nehisi Coates provides some characteristically helpful context in this Atlantic essay:

More than a century and a half ago, this country ignored the explicit words of men who sought to raise an empire of slavery. It subsequently transformed those men into gallant knights who sought only to preserve their beloved Camelot. There was a fatigue, in certain quarters, with Reconstruction—which is to say, multiracial democracy—and a desire for reunion, to make America great again. Thus, in the late 19th century and much of the 20th, this country’s most storied intellectuals transfigured hate-mongers into heroes and ignored their words—just as, right now, some are ignoring Kirk’s.

As Coates points out, “Burying the truth of the Confederacy, rewriting its aims and ideas, and ignoring its animating words allowed for the terrorization of the Black population, the imposition of apartheid, and the destruction of democracy.” And, he concludes, “The import of this history has never been clearer than in this moment when the hard question must be asked: If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?”

Another cartoon by the great Ann Telnaes. 16 April 2007

Though publicly speaking the truth has become more dangerous in the US, we must not look away.

So, while I’ve had moments of wondering whether I made the right choice, they were but moments. I made the right editorial choice in June, and I think I am making the right choice today — even if it feels like a more dangerous moment now.

As Timothy Snyder reminds us, most of autocracy’s power is freely given. So, we must not surrender in advance.

The greatest risk we face today is not the suspension of a talk show. Nor is it being fired for speaking the truth.

The greatest risk we face today is allowing the authoritarians to take this country from us. The greatest danger is fascist USA for generations to come. It is far easier to fight fascism now, in a period of autocratic breakthrough, when the autocrats are merely trying to consolidate power and act with impunity. The fight is much harder once autocrats have already consolidated power.

So, I do not plan to silence myself. For as long as I can, I will speak up and speak out.

AI is everywhere. This is a guide for students — my students, your students — and anyone who would like to resist the lure of AI. The more you know about large-language model (LLM) AI, the more reasons you discover to avoid using it — or, at least, to limit your use.

So. Here are 9 ways to resist the lure of LLM AI:

Unwilling to spend 10 minutes on the above video? OK, then, here’s a summary of my 9 points, all of which are addressed to my students:

Writing is a form of thinking. If you outsource your thinking, you don’t learn. AI knows nothing. Because AI cannot think. It cannot reason. It merely passes off statistical pattern-matching as reason. So, if you think AI will get you the right answer, you’re rolling the dice.Your writing has a voice. AI’s voice sounds like an excessively cheerful advertising copywriter. What you have to say is far more interesting than AI’s eloquent BS.AI cannot close-read. Because, again, AI cannot think.LLM AI are plagiarism machines. Are you comfortable using a product built on the theft of others’ work?Are you comfortable being used by AI? It is currently using you to improve the product. If you come to rely on it, how will you cope when you have to pay for it — or pay more for it —?What does relying on LLM AI do to your brain? When you stop doing something, you gradually un-learn how to do it. If you outsource your thinking to LLM AI, what will happen to your ability to think? If we outsource our thinking, we outsource our humanity. I want to see your humanity.What is LLM AI doing to the planet? In 2022, its data centers consumed 640 terawatt hours — which made it the 11th largest electricity consumer in the world, between the nations of Saudi Arabia (371 terawatt hours) and France (463 terawatt hours). Canvas is adding AI, promising to make grading easier. I will never use it. And I will disable it for as long as Canvas allows. Using it would say that I think so little of your ideas that I’m outsourcing my job to a robot. But learning requires my active involvement. So, I ask my students: if you are tempted to use AI, think of what using it would say to me.Sources:

Noman Bashir, Priya Donti, James Cuff, Sydney Sroka, Marija Ilic, Vivienne Sze, Christina Delimitrou, and Elsa Olivetti. “The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI.” MIT, 27 Mar. 2024.

Brian Calvert, “AI already uses as much energy as a small country. It’s only the beginning.” Vox, 28 Mar. 2024.

Joyeeta Gupta, Hilmer Bosch, and Luc van Vliet, “AI’s excessive water consumption threatens to drown out its environmental contributions.” The Conversation, 21 Mar. 2024.

Sarah Huddleston, “Instructors Will Now See AI Throughout a Widely Used Course Software.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 23July 2025.

Marcus Hutchins, “Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too.” Malware Tech, 4 Aug. 2025.

Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.” June 2025.

Iman Mirzadeh, Keivan Alizadeh, Hooman Shahrokhi, Oncel Tuzel, Samy Bengio, Mehrdad Farajtabar, “GSM-Symbolic: Understanding the Limitations of Mathematical Reasoning in Large Language Models.” Apple Machine Learning Research, Oct. 2024.

Meghan O’Rourke. “I Teach Creative Writing. This is What AI Is Doing to Students.” New York Times 18 July 2025.

Alex Reisner, “Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI.” The Atlantic 20 Mar. 2025.

Parshin Shojaee, Iman Mirzadeh, Keivan Alizadeh, Maxwell Horton, Samy Bengio, Mehrdad Farajtabar, “The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity.” Apple Machine Learning Research, June 2025.

Peiqi Sui, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Philippe Laban, Dean Murphy, Joseph P. Dexter, Richard Jean So, Samuel Baker, Pramit Chaudhuri, “KRISTEVA: Close Reading as a Novel Task for Benchmarking Interpretive Reasoning.” Cornell University, 3 June 2025.

Adam Zewe, “Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact.” MIT News, 17 Jan. 2025

Every fall, I seem to be making a new video on the subject. Here’s the one from 2024.

And here is an expanded article version and the related blog post:

“Why Not Use AI to Do Your Homework?” (Teachers & Writers Magazine, 15 Oct. 2024)“Why Not Write with AI?” (20 Aug. 2024)

How are the good people of Manhattan, Kansas fighting the regime? Well, in many ways, but one is via Indivisible MHK — the local chapter of Indivisible, the national pro-democracy organization founded by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. To find out what, precisely, we are up to, follow us on social media (BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Substack, TikTok, YouTube), visit our website, and join the fight for democracy.

I say “we” because I’ve been involved since early February, and have written a good bit for the IMHK Substack:

“Refusing, Together: How to Fight the Regime and Defend Democracy” (31 July 2025)“Democracy Is a Living Thing” (12 June 2025)“Make It Shine for You” (29 May 2025)“Hope: An Orientation of the Heart” (20 April 2025)“Is Hope Necessary?” (25 March 2025)“How to Save U.S. Democracy: A Five-Point Plan” (23 March 2025)“How to Keep Going: 10 Things to Remember” (12 March 2025)

I’ve also been making videos.

And doing a range of other things.

This is one reason my own blog has been quieter in recent months. So, I invite you to check out the IMHK Substack for more of the political content that might otherwise appear here.

Related (on the blog unless otherwise indicated)

RESIST

“Town Hall with Missing Senator Moran” (25 Feb. 2025)“Language Matters: DEI” (23 Feb. 2025)“No More Kings! Protest Musk’s Coup, on Presidents Day 2025” (16 Feb. 2025)“Another World Is Possible” (19 Nov. 2024).“You Are Not Alone: A Letter to My Students After the 2024 US Election” (6 Nov. 2024).“Resolutions for a New Academic Year: A survival guide for higher education in perilous times” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Sept. 2017)“The Public University in an Age of Alt-Facts: Remarks on Receiving a Higuchi Award” (13 Dec. 2016)“Surviving Trumpism, Restoring Democracy” (12 Nov. 2016)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE & EDUCATION

“Defending the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans” (1 Jan. 2024).“Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books?” (Geschichte der Gegenwart, 21 May 2023). See also the related blog post.“Breaking up with your favorite childhood classic books” (Washington Post, 16 May 2021).“Seuss, Racism, and Resources for Anti-Racist Children’s Literature” (9 Mar. 2021).“Trump is a liar. Tell children the truth” (Public Books, 15 Oct. 2019). See also the related blog post on the essay.“Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature” (ChLAQ) (11 Dec. 2018). Blog post announcing special issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on this subject, including excerpts from my introduction.Refugee Stories for Young Readers (Public Books, 23 Mar. 2017). Francesca Sanna’s The Journey and other contemporary refugee tales for children.

A version of this appeared on Substack – both mine and Indivisible MHK’s — this past Wednesday.

I am tired. Very tired. The regime is setting fires faster than we can put them out. This, as we know, is by design. They seek to overwhelm. They want surrender.

But why should we give them what they want? They’re bullies, grifters, and sociopaths. They have not earned our respect and cannot command our obedience.

So, take heart and remember these ten things:

1: This is going to take a while. Take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself.

2: We cannot put out all the fires. We can only do what we can do.

3: Since (usually) we will not be rewarded by immediately visible results, we must instead focus on doing what is right for its own sake. And, motivated by that, we must keep doing what can.

4: Dream big. A time of collapse is also a time to imagine the world we want to live in, and to begin building that world. So, let’s draw up some plans.

5: Every human deserves healthcare, housing, food, water, education, leisure, sleep, dignity, and justice. We all deserve a society that supports the flourishing of the many — and not just the few.

6: Our anger is justified and we can channel that anger into activism. But activism motivated primarily by anger risks burning itself out. Love is a more sustainable, steady-burning fuel. Love of neighbor, of justice, of the country we are building together. Inasmuch as we can, let love lead the fight.

7: There is strength in numbers. There are more of us than there are of them. Because autocrats cannot create their deeply unpopular regimes democratically, they require autocracy to succeed. But they are few, and we are many.

8: There is strength in community. We have each other. We will do this together.

9: Over time, more and more of these arsonists will get burned by the fires they have set. They will weaken themselves.

10: Through the work we are doing now, we are preparing ourselves for that moment — when their fires consume them, and our growing movement steps in to begin rebuilding.

So. Rest. Resist. Rebuild. Repeat.

We can do this.

Thinking that our Indivisible group could use some encouragement, I wrote this in the DFW airport, late Tuesday night. I then posted it into our Signal group chat. Our leader asked if she could post it on Substack. I revised it on my next flight, and sent it to her. She made additional revisions and posted it the next morning. I’m sharing it here because my blog has been my primary platform for such messages — though maybe I will start using Substack more? I don’t know.

Anyway. I also write pieces like this because I need the encouragement. I am not naturally optimistic. So, I try to orient myself towards possibility. Such orientation helps me get more done, helps me keep going. Perhaps this will help you, too.

On Saturday, Kansans held a virtual Town Hall with one of our missing Senators — Jerry Moran. Since he refused to meet us, we had an empty chair with his photograph taped to it. Over the course of 2.5 hours, 32 people from many walks of life expressed our concerns — about the ongoing coup, the legislative branch’s abdication of its responsibility, the effects that President Musk’s wanton destruction of our government is having and will have on the people of Kansas.

You can read more about the town hall in the Kansas Reflector today (25 Feb.)Or, if you like, you can watch the full 2.5-hour broadcast, an edited version, or just me — thanks to Dave Kendall, who edited the video, and to Laura Mead, who (along with Dave) organized the event.The Town Hall as originally broadcast (2.5 hours)A shorter version of the Town Hall (82 minutes)Just me (3 minutes)

And here’s the text of what I said —

Good afternoon. Philip Nel speaking from Manhattan, Kansas — which has been my home for 25 years now. Thanks to Dave and Laura for organizing this. And thanks, of course, to the photograph of Senator Moran taped to an empty chair for joining our town hall today. We appreciate your time.

So, we’re entering our fourth week of Elon Musk’s administrative coup. And my main question today is: When will you, Senator Moran, be standing up for our democracy? When will you be upholding your oath of office?

With no understanding of how government works, Musk and his team are destroying systems that keep us safe. Firing air traffic controllers. Firing people trying to contain bird flu. Firing National Nuclear Security Agency people who secure nuclear weapons. Now that USAID has been shut down, how many people have died? How many will die — not just abroad but here. USAID monitors and contains disease outbreaks around the world… which prevents those diseases from reaching us here in Kansas. Or… it used to.

Musk’s recklessness is profoundly dangerous. Destruction is not efficiency. I would hope that you’d know the difference between destruction and efficiency and, for that matter, between legal and illegal.

Because Elon Musk’s destruction of our government is also illegal. Elon Musk does not have the power of the purse. Congress — which includes the Senate, you know, where you work — congress has the power of the purse. Or it used to.

Why has the legislative branch of government, your branch of government, ceded all its power to the executive branch — indeed, to an unelected South African billionaire who is now effectively our executive branch —? 

Where is your patriotism, Senator Moran? For that matter, where is your spine?

In April, I will need to fly for business. If any those planes crash, I hope that you, Senator Moran, can live with having another death — my death — on your conscience. Because you and all who stand by while Musk destroys our government will be responsible.

Fascism is here, Senator. And you are fiddling while America burns.

Stop fiddling. Stop Musk’s coup. Stand up for democracy.

Thank you again for your time today.

Related (on the blog unless otherwise indicated)

RESIST

“Language Matters: DEI” (23 Feb. 2025)“No More Kings! Protest Musk’s Coup, on Presidents Day 2025” (16 Feb. 2025)“Another World Is Possible” (19 Nov. 2024).“You Are Not Alone: A Letter to My Students After the 2024 US Election” (6 Nov. 2024).“Resolutions for a New Academic Year: A survival guide for higher education in perilous times” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Sept. 2017)“The Public University in an Age of Alt-Facts: Remarks on Receiving a Higuchi Award” (13 Dec. 2016)“Surviving Trumpism, Restoring Democracy” (12 Nov. 2016)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE & EDUCATION

“Defending the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans” (1 Jan. 2024).“Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books?” (Geschichte der Gegenwart, 21 May 2023). See also the related blog post.“Breaking up with your favorite childhood classic books” (Washington Post, 16 May 2021).“Seuss, Racism, and Resources for Anti-Racist Children’s Literature” (9 Mar. 2021).“Trump is a liar. Tell children the truth” (Public Books, 15 Oct. 2019). See also the related blog post on the essay.“Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature” (ChLAQ) (11 Dec. 2018). Blog post announcing special issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on this subject, including excerpts from my introduction.Refugee Stories for Young Readers (Public Books, 23 Mar. 2017). Francesca Sanna’s The Journey and other contemporary refugee tales for children.

I’ve made another anti-fascist educational video. Below, full text and a list of main sources for the video — which I talk more about at the end of the video.

So, language matters. You hear of people being fired because of DEI, of programs being shut because of DEI, of grants revoked because of DEI.  But that’s not true.  DEI is not the cause.  Diversity is not firing people. Equity is not slashing grant money. Inclusion did not fire four-star general Charles Q. Brown.

Bigots are doing the firing. Racists, sexists, transphobes, homophobes are doing the firing. People who hate diversity, who hate equity, who hate inclusion are shuttering programs, slashing funds, and firing highly qualified people.

Language matters. When we’re told that people are getting fired or losing funds because of DEI, then that implies that, somehow, diversity, equity, and inclusion are, I guess, committing suicide? But they’re not. It’s not suicide. It’s murder. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and their administration are the murderers. The entire Republican Party — and some Democrats — are accessories to murder.

Autocracy infects language, fascists poison syntax, and then we absorb their viral sentences — which, in turn, infects the brain, like tiny doses of arsenic that, over time, sicken the body politic.

Inoculate yourself by refusing the poisonous logic of fascism, by using your own language, by calling hatred by its proper name.

No one is getting fired or purged because of DEI.

Main sources:Karen Fields and Barbara Fields, Racecraft (2012)Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich (1957; English translation by Martin Brady, 2000)Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)Related (on the blog unless otherwise indicated)

RESIST

“No More Kings! Protest Musk’s Coup, on Presidents Day 2025” (16 Feb. 2025)“Another World Is Possible” (19 Nov. 2024).“You Are Not Alone: A Letter to My Students After the 2024 US Election” (6 Nov. 2024).“Resolutions for a New Academic Year: A survival guide for higher education in perilous times” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Sept. 2017)“The Public University in an Age of Alt-Facts: Remarks on Receiving a Higuchi Award” (13 Dec. 2016)“Surviving Trumpism, Restoring Democracy” (12 Nov. 2016)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE & EDUCATION

“Defending the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans” (1 Jan. 2024).“Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books?” (Geschichte der Gegenwart, 21 May 2023). See also the related blog post.“Breaking up with your favorite childhood classic books” (Washington Post, 16 May 2021).“Seuss, Racism, and Resources for Anti-Racist Children’s Literature” (9 Mar. 2021).“Trump is a liar. Tell children the truth” (Public Books, 15 Oct. 2019). See also the related blog post on the essay.“Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature” (ChLAQ) (11 Dec. 2018). Blog post announcing special issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on this subject, including excerpts from my introduction.Refugee Stories for Young Readers (Public Books, 23 Mar. 2017). Francesca Sanna’s The Journey and other contemporary refugee tales for children.

An unboxing video that answers two questions:

The world is on fire. Why are you making another unboxing video? What is wrong with you, anyway?What took you so long to make the unboxing video for How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children’s Classic? Wasn’t this book published a couple of months back?

A dozen years ago, I began dreaming up a small book about Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon. It would be a biography of a book, a succinct introduction to how picture books work, and show people what we gain when we look closely — especially at something so apparently “simple” as a picture book. I both thought this a great idea for a book and doubted that it would ever get published. I kept returning to it, and ultimately decided that I just needed to write the book: once it was finished, I would have the best chance at getting a contract for it. So, I did.

And to my surprise and delight, the book is not only published, but How to Draw the World is also launching a new series for Oxford University Press: “Children’s Classics, Critically,” which I’m co-editing with Professor Melanie Ramdarshan Bold of the University of Glasgow.

So, look for How to Draw the World at your local library or bookstore. Thanks!

More about Harold (some adapted from How to Draw the World)“Meditations in purple,” The Oxford University Press Blog, 27 Jan. 2025.“His crayon is purple – but is Harold a Black boy?,” The Conversation, 16 Aug. 2024.“The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen,” School Library Journal, 8 Aug. 2024.More about Harold (on this blog)How to Draw the World: Book Trailer (30 July 2024). The story of how I made the trailer… and the trailer itself.The Neverending Crayon; or, Happy Crockett Johnson’s Birthday! (20 Oct. 2023). A photo of Johnson laughing, and reflections on Johnson’s influence on me.Harold and Maurice (20 Oct. 2022). Maurice Sendak’s signed copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the Rosenbach’s betrayal of Sendak’s memory.Harold vs. Donald, Round 2 (9 Sept. 2019). What if Harold were a malignant narcissist? And the US president? Cartoonists and satirists explore the idea.Harold and the Deluxe Edition (20 Oct. 2018). In the second of two birthday posts from 2018, an announcement! Harold’s Imagination, a collection featuring three Harold stories, plus an illustrated Afterword by Yours Truly… featuring a photograph of Johnson’s nephew Harold!Donald and the Golden Crayon (20 Oct. 2018). In the first of two birthday posts from 2018, an interview with the author and publisher of Donald and the Golden Crayon – the first book-length political satire inspired by a Crockett Johnson book.Harold is 60. So is his purple crayon (20 Oct. 2015). On the occasion of Johnson’s 109th birthday, tributes to Harold from Lane Smith, Bob Staake, and others.A Manifesto for Children’s Literature; or, Reading Harold as a Teenager (in The Iowa Review) (21 Sept. 2015). An essay (by me), inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon.Harold Around the World (20 Oct. 2014). Harold and the Purple Crayon has been published in many languages. Here are some of the covers.The Archive of Childhood, Part 1: Crayons (27 Dec 2014). How encountering a box of crayons from my childhood activates memories. I wish I had kept that entire box. I saved only the purple ones.How Much Is That Crayon in the Window? Harold at Compas, L.A. (10 May 2014). A Harold-themed window display.The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part II: Picture Books (23 June 2013). Picture books inspired by Harold? Some, definitely. Others may be.Harold and the Purple TARDIS (2 April 2012). Harold as Dr. Who.Harold and the School Mural (22 Jan. 2012). A Harold mural on the walls of the Ben Franklin School in Norwalk, Connecticut. (Crockett Johnson lived in South Norwalk — a.k.a. Rowayton.)The Purple Crayon’s Legacy, Part I: Comics & Cartoons (13 Sept. 2010). Comics and cartoons that pay tribute to Harold. One of the earliest posts on my blog.

        “I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

        That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction.”

— Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, Chapter 28

[Below, the script for the above video — wirth some additional links.]

It took Hitler 53 days to dismantle German democracy.

Trump was sworn in 27 days ago.

Elon Musk’s administrative coup began 14 days ago.

Three days ago, WIRED magazine reported, “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years… The move represents the first major example of the country’s cyberdefense agency accommodating President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud and online censorship.”

But the courts! I hear you say. The courts are pushing back!  They are, yes. But the results are, at best, mixed. President Musk, Vice President Trump, and their appointees are not necessarily abiding by these rulings. Since Musk and Trump routinely break the law and face no meaningful consequences, they of course do not feel bound by the law. They do not obey the law.

The courts will not save us. And, to quote an inscription on the US Dept. of Justice building itself, “Where law ends, tyranny begins.”

U.S. Dept of Justice featuring quotation by John Locke. Photo by Dmitry Bokser.

So, it is up to us, the people.

A billionaire dismantling the federal government according to his whims is not broadly popular. There are more people who oppose the coup than support it.

We are calling our Senators and Congresspeople. We are showing up at their offices. Since our Congresspersons are currently on recess, many are coming back to our states — and we must now seek them out at their town halls or ask them why they’re not holding town halls. Show up at their offices and, if necessary, at their homes.

On Monday February 17 in all 50 states, join the Presidents Day Protest. Go to your state Capitol (if you can) or your City Hall (if you cannot). Demand an end to Musk’s coup. Demand an end to the destruction of the US government. Fight for democracy.

We are 27 days into Trump’s presidency, and 2 weeks into Musk’s coup. It is not yet too late.

But it’s boots-on-the-ground time. Let’s go!

And whenever in the future you may be watching the above video or reading these words, remember that it is never too late to do something, however small, to fight for a better world. Because a better, more just, more fair world is possible. We all deserve to live in such a world. And we can build it. Together.

Related (on the blog unless otherwise indicated)

RESIST

“Another World Is Possible” (19 Nov. 2024).“You Are Not Alone: A Letter to My Students After the 2024 US Election” (6 Nov. 2024).“Resolutions for a New Academic Year: A survival guide for higher education in perilous times” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Sept. 2017)“The Public University in an Age of Alt-Facts: Remarks on Receiving a Higuchi Award” (13 Dec. 2016)“Surviving Trumpism, Restoring Democracy” (12 Nov. 2016)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE & EDUCATION

“Defending the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans” (1 Jan. 2024).“Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books?” (Geschichte der Gegenwart, 21 May 2023). See also the related blog post.“Breaking up with your favorite childhood classic books” (Washington Post, 16 May 2021).“Seuss, Racism, and Resources for Anti-Racist Children’s Literature” (9 Mar. 2021).“Trump is a liar. Tell children the truth” (Public Books, 15 Oct. 2019). See also the related blog post on the essay.“Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature” (ChLAQ) (11 Dec. 2018). Blog post announcing special issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on this subject, including excerpts from my introduction.Refugee Stories for Young Readers (Public Books, 23 Mar. 2017). Francesca Sanna’s The Journey and other contemporary refugee tales for children.

Take a break from calling your reps. For just a few minutes, stop doomscrolling and gloomposting. As you watch me open a box of books, you are also witnessing the successful completion of a 15-year-project… the publication in full and for the first time of Crockett Johnson’s classic comic strip Barnaby!

That’s right, Barnaby Volume 5 — designed by Dan Clowes, co-edited by me and Eric Reynolds, published by Fantagraphics — is now available. So, for the first time since February 1952, you can read how Johnson decided to end his strip. He takes the unusual step of writing a narrative conclusion to Barnaby — referenced on the book’s cover.

Volume 5 also features a foreword by director Ron Howard — who played Barnaby in the 1959 TV adaptation, alongside Bert Lahr (aka the Cowardly Lion) as Mr. O’Malley, and Mel Blanc as the voice of McSnoyd the invisible leprechaun. You’ll also find some photos from the production in our book, along with an introduction by Eisner-Award-winning comics scholar Susan Kirtley, an essay by Johnson on children’s “Fantastic Companions,” and an Afterword and notes by me.

In the video and the first paragraph, I claim that the publication of these five Barnaby books has been a 15-year journey. But I just checked. It’s actually been 17 years. In February 2008, Chris Ware introduced me — via email — to Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds and the late Kim Thompson. In December of 2009, the late George Nicholson and I met the Executor of Ruth Krauss’s Estate — Stewart Edelstein — at the law firm of Cohen & Wolf in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

My biography of Johnson and Krauss came out in 2012 (see Chris Ware’s gorgeous wrap-around cover, above), and the first volume of Barnaby appeared in 2013.

It’s been a long time coming, but you can at last read all 10 years of Crockett Johnson’s comic strip — a dream project for Eric and me. And, in case you are curious, quite a bit of work. It’s not like there’s an archive of all of these strips. We had to find them. For the final volume, I got some by photographing strips in Johnson’s scrapbook (a photo of which is also included in my Afterword).

Barnaby Volume 5 (1950-1952), coming in February 2025 from Fantagraphics

I’m grateful to Fantagraphics for seeing this project through to the end. It’s been a labor of love which, like the Barnaby strip in its heyday, has won more critical praise than sales. Indeed, if you would, perhaps you might ask your library to order these? They’re a must-have for any library that collects comics, or for any fan of classic comics. But don’t just take my word for it. Consider the words of some of the strip’s prominent fans:

“… [Barnaby] radiates human warmth and whimsy…. The artist’s brilliantly-written characters… keep their feet planted in the all-too-real world of 1940s America while flying off on pink wings into one of the greatest fantasy strips ever made.” — Art Spiegelman

“I think, and I am trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in lord knows how many years. I know that they are the most important additions to my heart…. I think Mr. Johnson must love people. I know darned well I must love Mr. Johnson.” — Dorothy Parker

“[Barnaby is] the last great comic strip. Yes, there are dozens of other strips worth rereading, but none are this Great; this is great like Beethoven, or Steinbeck, or Picasso. This is so great it lives in its own timeless bubble of oddness and truth…” — Chris Ware

“Barnaby by Crockett Johnson is a gentle, intelligent, funny, and ridiculous masterpiece.” — Jeff Smith

“No comic strip was more whimsically humorous than Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby” — Time magazine

“Barnaby is my favorite comic strip of all time” — Daniel Clowes

“Crockett Johnson is best known today for his children’s books… but his paramount creation was the celebrated if obscure newspaper strip Barnaby. This effort is the first to collect it in its entirety. Even Mr. O’Malley couldn’t conjure up a more welcome endeavor.” — Booklist, on our Fantagraphics series.

“A series of comic strips which, laid end to end, reach from here to wherever you want to go just once before you die.” — The New York Times

“There’s no way Jack Kerouac, along with every other self-consciously cool person in New York wasn’t reading this. O’Malley turns into Neil Cassady, the guy who’s not quite human, who never shuts up, who drives you crazy, and who can make anything happen, just like that.” — Greil Marcus, in The Believer