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The Name Jar

 Genre: Fiction/Multicultural
Title: The Name Jar
Author/Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
Awards: Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Master List, Arizona Younger Readers Award Nominee
Age Range: 3-7 Years Old

Summary: Unhei is new to America and is attending school for her first day. She is nervous, and some of the kids make fun of her name. She tells her mom that she wants an American name because she does not want to be different. She tests out different names by introducing herself in the mirror, but nothing seems to sound right. The next day at school Unhei found a jar on her desk, which was filled with name suggestions from her classmates. It keeps getting filled up, but one day when she went to class the name jar was gone. Only one name was on her desk and it was her own. She decided to introduce herself to the class and keep her original name. Johnny showed up at her house that evening with the name jar. He told Unhei that he wanted her to keep her own name which is why he took the jar. 

Evaluation: I loved this story. I thought it was beautiful. I love how we see that it can be challenging to "fit in" when you are new to the country. Regardless, I am happy that in the end, Unhei chose to keep her name. I think this book can help students to see that all names are unique and each culture has different names. Therefore, we should be nice and learn how to pronounce everyone's name because that shows that we respect them. I think this book would be great for students in kindergarten through fourth grade. I would want to use this book in my class to teach students about being welcoming to new people they meet. For younger students, I would have them practice writing their name or tracing it. For older students, I would have them research the meaning of their name, then do a journal entry about it.
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