The Pencil was published in 2008. It was written by Allan Ahlberg and illustrated by Bruce Ingman.
Page one of the story starts with a pencil, writing. Next the pencils draws in a boy, called Banjo. Banjo wants a dog and the dog wants a cat. This continues and slowly a world is created. A paintbrush is drawn and then there’s color all over the place. But the people complain like people do and an eraser is created to “fix” things. The eraser gets carried away (this is the most tense part of the story) and the pencil has to save his life. By the end of the story the pencil and the paintbrush go to bed in a box. The end.
I liked this story a bit more than The Runaway Dinner probably because some of these pages made me smile more. The use of two giant pages to draw some very simple things with short text is quite effective.
The illustrations tend to be on the simple side. I’m sure a lot of children could make similar drawings but the characters all look good and the use of spacing is sometimes very generous (easy on the eyes).
The Pencil is a fairly long read for a picture book. It’s really amazing how this story transforms and as I mentioned above, there’s a bit of tension towards the end with the eraser. Maybe there’s a message about not erasing things and we shouldn’t be too picky with what we already have in life. Or maybe I’m over-thinking.
I’d recommend this book.
