Unhei has just moved to America from Korea and is nervous about starting a new school and is wondering if the kids will like her. She decides that she is going to choose a new name and tells her classmates that she will pick one next week. The kids in Unhei's class want to help by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from. She goes through the names pretending to have one of the american names. When a classmate comes to Unhei's neighborhood and learns what her name is and what it means he decides to hide the jar. The next morning, the students search for the jar; Unhei tells everyone that she has pick a name. She writes 'Unhei' on the board and tells everyone that she wants to pick the name that she already has. The book has realistic cartoon illustrations that encapsulate the emotions that Unhei goes through.
I would use this book to discuss character growth and have the students write how they think Unhei develops throughout the story. We would talk about how in the beginning she was nervous about if the american kids would like her and by the end of the story she was proud of who she is and what her name is.
Book title: The Name Jar
Author and Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
Genre: Diverse Perspective, Realistic Fiction
Number of pages: 40
Copyright year: 2001
Publisher: Dragonfly Books
Standard used: Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons. [W.3.1c]
Love this book! Having a bank full of words is so important!
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