Illustrated by Luisa Uribe
3 stars
A sweet story about the music and song behind every name.
After the first day of school, a little girl refuses to go back. No one can say her name, including her teacher. As they walk home, her mother shows her the song in every name and that she must teach others to sing her name.
A nice story about a girl gaining the confidence to teach others to say her name. Much of the language used is pretty vague (“names have fire”, say a name from the heart), which probably won’t work well for very concrete thinkers. The mother focuses on singing the names, rather than how to deal with the other children who “pretended to choke” on her name or say her name sounds made up. I think it would have been nice to see some more concrete ways to handle bullying.
I liked that each name is followed by its pronunciation. If you aren’t familiar with the names used, some of the descriptions seen a little strange (“Xiomara fights a battle in your mouth”, “Kwaku storms in on a Wednesday”). Many of the descriptions are derived from the name’s meaning (Xiomara=ready for battle, Kwaku=born on a Wednesday). I definitely didn’t pick up on this the first readthrough.
Gorgeous illustrations. Soft, sweet, and soothing.
At the back is a glossary of the names mentioned in the story, along with their pronunciation, origin, and meaning.
Nice messaging and wonderful artwork, but it lacked something to pull it all together for me. A good read overall.