Glenwood Elementary teacher-librarian Michiyo Watanabe recommends The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi for Asian Heritage Month.
The Name Jar is a touching and uplifting story about a little girl named Unhei who has just moved to America from Korea and is trying to find a way to fit into her new world.
When Unhei shares her name with some of the other kids on the school bus, they struggle to pronounce it because it’s unfamiliar to them. When Unhei arrives to school and her teacher asks her what her name is, she feels so embarrassed that she tells her class she will choose a new English name.
Her new classmates help out by filling a glass jar with different names like Daisy and Tamela, but when she reads the names, none of them feel right to her. With the help of her family and some new friends, she’s reminded of the beauty and meaning of her own name. In the end, she realizes the best name for her is her own: Unhei, which means “grace.”
I chose The Name Jar for Asian Heritage Month because it helps us understand what it means to move to a new place from another country. It can be hard to fit into a new world at the beginning and unfamiliar names can be challenging for English speakers. But if newcomers feel like they have to change or hide their heritage, they lose something important in the process.
This book helps us appreciate the value of our culture and teaches us to be proud of our heritage. It teaches us to have an open mind and be willing to accept people’s different backgrounds and birth names, even if they are unfamiliar. In that way, we all gain.
The Name Jar is available in SD42 libraries and on Sora.
