Is Crockett Johnson’s Harold, of “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” a child of color? If you’ve bought any of the “Harold” books published in the past 25 years, or saw the new movie ...

This wonder will arrive through a tool of “pure imagination” (they really say that!). That is, Harold’s purple crayon, whose concoctions add some not-insubstantial visual interest to the ...

At least in “Purple Crayon,” the first of seven books about Harold, there is no sign of a parent, though Harold does have a home and a bed. (A mother is mentioned in his second adventure ...