Chrysanthemumby Kevin Henkes
Pub. 1991
"Chrysanthemum loved the way her name looked when it was written with ink on an envelope. She loved the way it looked when it was written with icing on her birthday cake. And she loved the way it looked when she wrote it herself with her fat orange crayon."
I love Kevin Henkes style. His illustrations are unique, fun, and vibrantly colorful; his prose, always clever. His stories are great at capturing the ridiculous way that children experience emotions-- one minute their world is crumbling to tear-filled pieces and the next they are positively beaming and happy as can be. That's what happens to Chrysanthemum as she goes from thinking her name is "absolutely perfect" to "absolutely dreadful" and back again. I love the little details like "her outfit with seven pockets", her evenings filled with "hugs and kisses and Parcheesi", and her classmates collection of seriously short names (Don, Eve, Al, Kay, Max, Sue, Ken, Jo etc. . . ) . Henkes also throws in little laughs for the parents like the fathers reading choices as he tries to comfort Chrysanthemum through her name crisis: "The Inner Mouse Vol. 1 Childhood Anxiety" and "A Rose by Any Other Name: Understanding Identity." Perfect book to share with any small child needing a perspective on others name-calling (which I can only imagine will shortly be on the rise. Weird names seem to be trending, no?)
And on an educational note, here is what a real Chrysanthemum actually looks like, just in case you didn't know.
No comments:
Post a Comment