A Giant Crush


A Giant Crush will not be getting a valentine from me anytime soon. 

THREE PROS
*Melissa Sweet and Gennifer Choldenko, if nothing else, fill a niche in the picture book market by choosing a topic that is, frankly, difficult to tackle  
*The little girls' reactions to their classmates' bunny love was spot-on
*I did like the anticipation Choldenko built by delaying the reveal of where the flower went

THREE CONS 
*Keeping track of the bunnies names was a real chore, especially since three of the four main characters' names started with the letter 'C' (technically, there were four 'C' names since one bunny was named Carter Corey... by the way, I could sit here for an hour and wouldn't be able to think up a more awful name) 
*Not a fan of Choldenko's decision to have Cooper tell the story from his perspective (she probably did it to limit the quote attributions) -- maybe AGC could have been better if she figured out a way to tell it using fewer quotes in the first place 
*Yes, the occasional tiny tot with a Napoleon Complex will make fun of the really tall kid in class, but, from my experience, being blessed in the height department is rarely a bad thing, even in elementary school

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Went and got a haircut today.  I asked for a "two" clipper all the way around.  How that took 45 minutes is beyond me, but that's another story.  During her fourth pass over the left side of my head, we got to talking about Valentine's Day.  Since neither of us have plans that will make romantic history, I won't bore you with the details.  Nonetheless, I did take it as a sign that tonight was predestined to be the night that I would write my review of this book.  So here goes...  First of all, let me say that there should be a disclaimer on the front that warns parents not to bother with it for kids under five.  [I guess the title should have given it away, but still.] The whole concept of crushes was completely lost on my almost three-year-old.  For argument's sake, I pretended that I had a boy twice his age to see if that would help.  It really didn't.  A Giant Crush has about as much of a chance of staying in my home as six-year-old me had of kissing a girl in my all-male first grade class
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