A review by kimberly_b
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

1.0

I'm not in the habit of rating the dozens and dozens of children's books I read to my kids, but I had to review this one. This is a terrible book and I can't figure out why the heck everyone thinks it's so wonderful! Basically, it's about a girl named Chrysanthemum who doesn't like her name, because she gets teased and bullied for it (her friends have 'normal' names). Then, one of her teachers tells Chrysanthemum how much she loves her name and that she wants to name her baby (the teacher is pregnant) Chrysanthemum. Suddenly, Chrysanthemum loves her name because her teacher says it's an awesome name. What kind of message is that?! Yeah, let's teach little girls to evaluate themselves and their feelings of self-worth based on other people! This book doesn't even deserve 1 star. I hope parents look beyond the books popularity and critically think about what it's message is to young kids. It's completely beyond me why this book is on must-read lists for young children.