Review
Genre: Bullying / Individuality / Animals
Year Published: 1991
Year Read: 2010
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
“Chrysanthemum” is a cute tale from Kevin Henkes about how a young girl mouse named Chrysanthemum tries to appreciate her long and unusual name when she goes to school and is teased by her classmates. “Chrysanthemum” is a truly heartwarming story that children will easily enjoy for many years.
Kevin Henkes has done an excellent job at both writing and illustrating this book. Kevin Henkes’ story about how Chrysanthemum starts to loathe her name because some kids teased her about her name is easily relatable to children who have also been teased about their names. Also, the story does a great job at describing how much Chrysanthemum loves her name and even though she was teased about her name, she learns to accept her name and many children will learn that they should not let other kids tease them about their names and that they should accept who they are no matter what. Kevin Henkes’ illustrations are cute as all the characters are mice that perform human activities such as dancing around on their hind legs. The image that stood out the most was the image of Mrs. Twinkle herself as the text describes how amazing she is and the image strongly reinforces that by having Mrs. Twinkle look extremely beautiful and having a large stomach due to her being pregnant which is one of the few times I actually saw an image of a pregnant character in a children’s book.
“Chrysanthemum” is a wonderful book about accepting who you are no matter what other people say that children will easily relate to and enjoy. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since there is nothing inappropriate in the content of this book.
Kevin Henkes has done an excellent job at both writing and illustrating this book. Kevin Henkes’ story about how Chrysanthemum starts to loathe her name because some kids teased her about her name is easily relatable to children who have also been teased about their names. Also, the story does a great job at describing how much Chrysanthemum loves her name and even though she was teased about her name, she learns to accept her name and many children will learn that they should not let other kids tease them about their names and that they should accept who they are no matter what. Kevin Henkes’ illustrations are cute as all the characters are mice that perform human activities such as dancing around on their hind legs. The image that stood out the most was the image of Mrs. Twinkle herself as the text describes how amazing she is and the image strongly reinforces that by having Mrs. Twinkle look extremely beautiful and having a large stomach due to her being pregnant which is one of the few times I actually saw an image of a pregnant character in a children’s book.
“Chrysanthemum” is a wonderful book about accepting who you are no matter what other people say that children will easily relate to and enjoy. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since there is nothing inappropriate in the content of this book.
Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog
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