Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Kindergarten to 2^nd Grade

Chrysanthemum loves her name. She loves the way it sounds. She loves the way her name looks written with icing on her birthday cake.

But when she gets to school and her classmates tease her long name, Chrysanthemum begins to doubt that her name is as special as she thought it was.

This book is for a slightly older audience because of the more advanced vocabulary. There are also a few things only grown-ups will catch in the illustrations.

Personally, I’d love to have a name as unique as Chrysanthemum. As you’ve probably guessed by now, Hope Z Avalon isn’t my real name. It’s just my pen name or ‘nom de plume’. My real first name is Alexandra, Alex for short. Sometimes I wish I were named something different. Mostly because Alex is such a common name, worse it can also be used as a boy’s name. I make that comment because in 7^th grade math, my homework papers kept getting mixed up with a boy Alex who misbehaved in class. The teacher even sent my mother a letter saying how bad “I” was in class. That’s when I started writing my full name on my homework and test papers.

My dad has a pretty unique name. His name is Floyd. Or as my grandma pronounces it ‘Ploid’.

I can sort of understand why they would make fun of her name because it’s so long but I don’t understand why they made fun of the fact that her name is a flower. What’s the big deal about being named after a flower? There are tons of people named after flowers. Lily, Rose, Petunia, Marigold to name a few. I’m pretty sure the students are just jealous that they don’t have an exciting name like Chrysanthemum. On the page that lists Chrysanthemum’s classmates’ names, they are all pretty common short names.

Speaking of exciting names, here’s a shout out to two girls in my neighborhood with the best names I’ve ever heard, Verabelle and Nova.

If you have an extraordinary name, write it down below in the comment section.