Facts about kevin henkes

I really and for all intents and purposes do much love Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum and on an intensely personal and emotional level at that, and firmly believe that it is a story to which especially those of us (and really both children and adults) who have unusual, foreign sounding or simply imaginative first names can easily and readily relate (like me, for example, with a given name like Gundula).

And first and foremost, Chrysanthemum is therefore and even simply a sweet and evocative story about loving, about appreciating one's name, about loving oneself, but also very much and even sadly a tale about bullying and schoolyard, classroom harassment and how this is often neither taken seriously enough nor even remotely successfully combatted.

For just look at Chrysanthemum's first teacher Mrs. Chud, who annoyingly and really totally in all ways cluelessly does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING USEFUL with regard to Chrysanthemum being relentlessly and loudly ri