The Name Jar

Title: The Name Jar

Author/Illustrator: Yangsook Choi

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Awards: N/A

Grade Level: PK - 2

Unhei recently moved to American from Korea. On her first day of school, because the kids on the bus kept on mispronouncing her name, she decided to not share it with the class and would pick a new one. She told her mother that she wanted an American name, but her mother reminded her that she was different which was a good thing. Her grandmother and mother had gone to the name master to get her name which meant grace. The next day at school, she found a glass jar that her classmates had filled with name suggestions. Her classmate, Joey, found out about her name stamp and her name's beautiful meaning. When she went to school on Monday, the name jar was missing and she found a slip of paper in its place. Unhei chose to share her original name and helped the class pronounce it. She later learned that Joey had taken the name jar in hopes that she would keep her name. He even got a Korean nickname, Chinku, which meant friend. This is a great book to share in a multicultural world that everyone should value their names and respect can be shown by learning to properly pronounce other people's names. I would use this book at the beginning of the year and have the student share their name origins which include its meaning, how and why it was chosen, and how to pronounce it. They can also share their different family and cultural origins.