The Name Jar

Book: The Name Jar 

Author: Yangsook Choi 

Illustrator: Yangsook Choi 

Genre: Realistic Fiction 

Awards: CCBC Award 

Age Group: Pre-k - 2 

Summary: 

Unhei was both nervous and excited for her first day of school. While on the school bus, some kids make a big deal out of her name and leave her flustered. As she introduces herself to the class, the bus situation causes her to not want to tell the class her name. When she goes to class the next day, she finds a glass jar on her desk filled with names and a kid, Joey, tells her she can pick any name she likes. Unhei eventually comes to embrace her name and then decides to introduce herself with her given name.

Evaluation and Comments: 

The Name Jar tells the story of Unhei, as she not only has to deal with moving to another country but also having a name drastically different than her peers. Any confidence she might have had was crushed with the bus accident so by the time she came to class, she wanted a normal name, even to the point that she asked her mother for an American name. It wasn't until she remembered her grandmother and saw the importance of her name and it's meaning that she came to truly appreciate it. 

Our names are a huge aspect of who we are and because of that, I would definitely have this book in my classroom. From my own experiences in Elementary school, I know kids with more unique names tend to get made fun of. Hopefully this book would help combat that and teach students the importance of embracing your name and respecting the name of our peers. 

For class activities, you can have a writing assignment in which students can write about their names and if they could change it, what would they change it to and why. Students can also make their own name jars and put a couple names in them. Lastly, students can do research over their name and learn the significance and meaning behind it. 

In conclusion, The Name Jar has my seal of approval! 🥇😄