Supriya Kelkar’s picturebook, My Name, opens with a little child getting ready for the first day of school. “There will be so many new names on the first day…” begins the book.
The child’s parents advise carefulness and kindness in hearing fellow students’ names and sharing their own. When the child shares his name, those around are tongue-tied because the name is not a culturally familiar one.
The child reflects:
My name means spices
And far-off smells
Unseen colors
And sounds unheard to them.
He muses on the rich and varied dimensions to his name, even as he faces skepticism from peers.
When he gets home, his parents remind him of what his name means to them. Theirs are words of affirmation and love:
your name means warmth
Like the first summer breeze
Wrapping us together
With those who came before.
The book ends with a celebration of the uniqueness of every child and each child’s own name.
Sandhya Prabhat’s illustrations are energetic and charming. They evoke contexts and emotions well. Visually, the depicted children are from a rich variety of backgrounds. The main character look stylish and big-eyed.
My Name does not define the main character’s name, and it leaves the name to be defined by young picture book readers. This is a highly readable and affirming book, with an important lesson from the life of the author, who experienced struggles with her name in her youth and through high school, where she took on a nickname that peers gave her (“Soup”) and mispronounced her own name to get by socially.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
