Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 1955 children's picture book written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson. Published by Harper Collins Publishers, it is Johnson's most popular book, and has led to a series of other related books, as well as many adaptations. The story is written in third-person point-of-view, and follows a young boy on an imaginative adventure through the night.^[1]

The protagonist, Harold, is a curious four-year-old^[2] boy who, with his magic purple crayon, has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it.

Harold wants to go for a walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one. He has nowhere to walk, so he draws a path. Using his purple crayon, he goes on many adventures including encountering a dragon, boating through deep waters, eating a picnic consisting of only nine flavors of pies, and flying in a hot-air balloon that saves him from a fall. Eventually Harold grows tired, and searches for his bedroom window in order to go to bed. He draws many windows, drawing an entire city, yet none is his. Finally, Harold remembers where his window is situated and constructs his own room and bed, and nods off to sleep.^[1]

• Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955)
• Harold's Fairy Tale (1956)
• Harold's Trip to the Sky (1957)
• Harold at the North Pole (1958)
• Harold's Circus (1959)
• A Picture for Harold's Room (easy reader, 1960)
• Harold's ABC (1963)
• Harold and His Friends: A Harold and the Purple Crayon Treasury (2003)
• Adventures of Harold and His Friends (2005)
• Harold's Treasure Hunt (posthumous, 2020)

The original story was adapted by Weston Woods Studios (distribution starting in 1959) and Brandon Films^{[citation needed]} into a seven-minute short film in 1959, directed by David Piel and narrated by Norman Rose.^[3][4] In 1971, Gene Deitch directed an animation of A Picture for Harold's Room, and in 1974 an animation of Harold's Fairy Tale. In 1993, these three animations were packaged with a documentary, and sold as the Harold and the Purple Crayon and Other Harold Stories set. These stories were featured on the popular CBS children's television show Captain Kangaroo, which ran for 30 years from 1955 to 1984 before moving to PBS for six more. There have also been theater adaptations.^[5][6]

In the couch gag for The Simpsons episode "The Bob Next Door", Harold is shown drawing the Simpson family living room during the regular title sequence. Homer also asks Harold to draw him a can of Duff Beer after he finishes with the living room.

In 2011, the story was adapted as an interactive book for the iPad by Trilogy Studios.^[7]

In 2019 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jimmy Kimmel presented a parody, Donald and the Magic Sharpie.

The book is spoofed in the Robot Chicken episode "Bugs Keith in: I Can't Call Heaven, Doug".

Harold and the Purple Crayon has consistently been well regarded as a children's literature favorite and has been praised for its combination of themes of childhood imagination and reality. A series of 9 titles followed.^[20] Remaining popular amongst children's teachers, it ranked in the National Education Association's "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children," and ranked 16th among School Library Journal's "Top 100 Picture Books" in its 2012 survey.^[21]

The book has been used frequently in children's and art education lesson plans, as well as referenced in other children's literature.^[22] One of the protagonists in Captain Underpants, Harold Hutchins, is named after the protagonist in the book, with its author, Dav Pilkey, insisting on naming his main characters after his "childhood literary loves."^[23] In the book This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey, On and Off the Record by the author Neal Karlen, Prince's mother Mattie Shaw confirmed that his favorite book as a child was Harold and the Purple Crayon and was the reason for Prince's love of the color purple. Karlen, Neal (October 2, 2020). This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey, On and Off the Record. USA: Macmillan USA. p. 43. ISBN 978-1250135247.

The story has also been referenced in TV and cinema. In Rob Reiner's 1999 romantic comedy The Story of Us, Kate (Michelle Pfeiffer) says that Harold and the Purple Crayon is one of her favorite books and an allegory for her marriage with Ben (Bruce Willis). She later explains that Ben just wouldn't "share the crayon", and that she feels she has been living in his world rather than one she had helped create. In Episode 3 of the third season of Legion ("Chapter 22"), Gabrielle Haller reads the book to her infant son, David, who will grow up to be the series' central protagonist. In season 34, episode 15 of The Simpsons, Bart encourages a group of younger children to draw on the library books, and Ralph does so with a purple crayon, drawing off the page and onto the wall, creating a doorway with stairs which he walks through. In an after-credits scene, his father, Chief Wiggum, is seen talking through the doorway, encouraging him to come out and not draw a boat and sail away on it, as he doesn't know where the river it is on goes.

The book inspired programmer Petri Purho to create the computer game Crayon Physics Deluxe.^[24][25]