Crockett Johnson
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Crockett Johnson is one of roughly one hundred authors whose work was selected by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list — 120 books chosen across four reading stages, from first lap-reads to first chapter books. The selected book was chosen for how precisely it meets children at a real developmental moment. This recognition cannot be bought: no author or publisher paid to appear on our lists, and we take no commission on any book sale.
About Crockett Johnson
Crockett Johnson (1906–1975) was a celebrated newspaper cartoonist — his strip Barnaby was a 1940s sensation — who gave children's literature its purest metaphor for imagination: one boy, one purple crayon, one line that makes the world.
Johnson and his wife, author Ruth Krauss, formed one of the great picture-book households; late in life he turned to painting geometric theorems, as spare and elegant as Harold's line.
Also by this author: Harold's Fairy Tale · A Picture for Harold’s Room
Publisher page: www.fantagraphics.com/collections/crockett-johnson
Selected for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list
Part of The Best Children’s Books by Age, chosen by the teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX.