Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
Chrysanthemum was born on the best day of her parent’s lives. She was perfect and her parents graced her with a perfect name. Chrysanthemum loves her name until…she starts school. On her first day of school the other children laugh when her name is called. The tease her until she “wilts.” That night at home her parents assure her that she has the perfect name and she starts to bloom again. The next day at school the children tease her again, they threaten to “pick” her and “sniff” her. Her parents try one again to assure her that she has the perfect name…but she is not so easily convinced. The girls in her class start singing a different song when they meet the new music teacher and find out her name.
This is a wonderful book to read to children at the beginning of the school year. Kevin Henkes is amazingly gifted at really “getting it” when it comes to childhood emotions. Highly Recommended!
henkes, chrysanthemum, children’s books
November 14th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
I remember reading this and loving it. It was one of my favorites up there with “If you give a mouse a cookie.” Hehe.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:12 am
My Chrysanthemum doesnt look as good as that one! LOL
Sounds like a cute book.
November 19th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
I love this author! All of his books appeal to me as much as they do to Noah. If you go to unitedstreaming.com, they have some of the video versions of his books. It’s more like narrated storytime than an animated version, but Noah likes to see the videos anyway.