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PRESCHOOL
Thompkins-Bigelow, Jamilah

Your Name Is a Song

40 pp. | Innovation | October, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-943147-72-4 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-943147-91-5 $10.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Luisa Uribe. Roll call can be difficult for a child with an unusual name. A young girl describes how her name "got stuck" in her teacher's mouth and kids "pretended to choke" or "seemed afraid" while hearing it or attempting to pronounce it. As they walk home, Mom reminds her that her "name is a song" and many other names are as well: "Olumide is a melody...Mamadou is a beat." She also imparts a lesson about descendants of enslaved Africans in the U.S.: "Their real names were stolen long ago so they dream up new ones." When the girl returns to school, she sings the names of her teacher and classmates, then her own name: Kora-Jalimuso. Throughout the story all names are followed by phonetic spelling. Names are represented visually as colorful swirls and air currents, stars, or fiery sparks through which the girl's mother lovingly leads her. A glossary of names, meanings, and pronunciations is included, by which we learn that the girl is named for a "harp of a female griot," a person who "passes on oral history through song." A bighearted, reassuring book that imparts a simple yet important message: we all deserve to have our names pronounced correctly.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

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