Kevin HenkesCritiques

Chrysanthemum is a picture book about a little girl mouse with the name, Chrysanthemum. Her parents loved this name so much and believed it fit her perfectly. She took this to heart, and she wore her name with pride! But, at her first day at school, her classmates bully her about her name. This teasing almost got to her, but through her kind and encouraging teacher, she learned to love her name again.

This is such a nostalgic childhood book to me! My mom is a first grade teacher and I just remember reading this in her room when I was younger. I think this book shares a really good message of name acceptance and just being true to yourself. It's super cute and well done, even for an older book. I would have this book in my classroom, and I would give it to first graders.

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Little white rabbit wonders what it's like to be green, tall, a rock, a butterfly...until he comes too close to a cat and runs home, where he doesn't wonder how it feels to be loved.

One day Penny finds a marble. It's pretty and blue, and she loves it right away. So Penny takes the marble home. But does the marble really belong to Penny?

Preschool - 3
Caldecott Artist
Newbery Author

Preschool - 3
#1 Book Sense Bestseller
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book
Booklist Editors’ Choice
School Library Journal Best Book

Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum!

I have a new appreciation for this book as a parent - I feel the same way about my sweet Phoebe as Chrysanthemum's parents do. She is absolutely perfect.

And so is this book.

I've also come to realize that my sweet, absolutely perfect daughter is obsessed with villains, and she told me she needed to look at the page of nightmare Victoria picking Chrysanthemum's petals for ten minutes.

I have a feeling we will be reading this again for bedtime very soon...

Second-graders really enjoyed this book. I played a video of Kevin Henkes reading his book aloud.
https://youtu.be/RL0y9bOaQ24

My second graders loved this addition to our author study. Beautiful illustrations and a touching story. The students could relate to Lilly's jealousy. It has a sweet ending.

A great addition to an author's study on Kevin Henkes. Second-graders really enjoyed this read-aloud.

An excellent read-aloud for grade 2. I used it as part of an author study. Lilly appears in several books.

This was terrible. It was sad and depressing. It was made worse by the fact neither child referred to their parents as mum or dad - just Reena or Glenn or Vickie. Even the grandmas were referred to as Nova or Floy. Maybe that was to prevent confusion for the reader but it just came across as flat and made it feel as if there was no love between the families.

As for the main characters I didn't really like either of them. Blaze was somewhat alright. I felt sorry for him but he seemed like a decent person - just a little weird, rather anxious and somewhat depressed. And his family was nice even if they did feel flat and distant.

Joselle was a compulsive liar and a cruel little girl. I felt sorry for her in some regards, her relationships with her mother and her grandma are terrible and it no doubt hurts to be treated as a burden and unwanted. On the other hand she was a cruel lying brat, looking to spread the hurt around. She purposefully provokes Blaze by spelling out his dead mother's name with stones on his hill, then lies about when she got there to mess with his head. She did feel bad about it later, when she became friends with him but it was too little too late.

It was painful to get through. 1 star.

AR: 3.3

A fun book about a fashion loving talking animal!

Vivid yet simple prose and artwork. It's a quiet book that would be perfect for an autumn bedtime story.

Cat

This book would be good for primary students. This book is "Waiting" written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes and published in 2015. This book is about toy animals sitting on a windowsill each waiting or something different. At the end, a new character joins and they all wait for what to happen next. I think this would be good in a classroom for independent reading for. new reader as there are very little words and the pictures say a lot. I think it is a heartfelt, sweet book that teaches kids to be curious and exciting for what it next in their life.

This book was about a kitten who thought the moon was a bowl of milk. It was very cute but didn't hold a ton of educational value. It could be used for young readers to work on fluency and comprehension since it is quite simple. It could also be used to talk about the moon.
I would keep this in my classroom library or use it with beginning readers. This is appropriate for Preschool-practicing reading in 1st grade.

How does a house become a home? Henkes invites the youngest readers to notice details - is it day or night? - and changes around the house, until finally a family arrives.

Read at storytime with Quiet by Tomie DePaola. Lovely.

A sweet book that goes through some of the stages of spring.

Dead mom books kill me. It's so, so hard for me to read about a motherless child and imagine my own child motherless. I get so, so weepy. So I have to admit I skimmed this because I didn't want to cry too much. I appreciate that Mr. Henkes writes these quiet, slow, contemplative middle grade novels. But I really prefer his picture books.

Still, the writing here is lovely. The characterization rich. The plot is pretty thin and based on magical thinking in what adult readers know to be a realistic setting. So I wasn't truly intrigued by the idea that Amelia's mother could still be alive or that her spirit was visiting her. Kids may be swept up in this possibility and be along for the ride. Of course, the real journey here is Amelia's personal growth and her relationship with her father. All over the course of one week, which felt like summer but was actually spring break.

I'm not sure why Henkes chose to set this in 1999, which *shudder* practically makes it historical fiction. One character has anxiety about Y2K, but otherwise maybe he just wanted to leave technology out of the picture.

I love that Amelia gets a reassuring letter from her friend right when she really needs it. Shades of [b:Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse|825081|Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse|Kevin Henkes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438200059l/825081._SX50_.jpg|1223344].

You know who I really think should read this book? Distant, withholding parents like Amelia's dad. Too wrapped up in their own sorrow to be present for their kids. Maybe this story would help them see that kids need connection.

My favorite part is the note the teacher gives her: "Today was hard. Tomorrow will be better." Some days I really need a note like that.

I really wish that, instead of a 229-page novel for 2nd graders, Henkes had written four 70-page novellas for 2nd graders. Seriously.

Newbery update: I actually had a dream last night that Billy Miller won the Newbery Medal and I was so disappointed. Turns out, it won an Honor, and I'm not so disappointed. It's nice for the Newbery committee to recognize a book for younger readers, even if I still believe this is really four books crammed into one too-long book. I will continue to think that, while this book has its charms, it's kind of boring and nowhere near as charming as a Ramona, a Clementine, or a Fudge.

This is sort of a junior version of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe. Penny takes a marble she find in the grass and then feels sick with guilt that she may have stolen it.

The ending isn't quite as cute as [b:Penny and Her Doll|13614644|Penny and Her Doll|Kevin Henkes|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335223433s/13614644.jpg|19215220], but this book is definitely another shining example of Henkes' gift for writing great stories for very young readers where every word counts.