Updated
Picture books about kids whose names get mispronounced, teased or shortened, and what their names mean to them. They make a good start to the first week of school, when teachers are learning how to say everyone's name.
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The Name Jar
Yangsook Choi
Unhei, new from Korea, thinks about picking an American name. Her class fills a jar with suggestions.
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Your Name Is a Song
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
After a day of teachers getting her name wrong, a girl learns from her mother that every name has music in it.
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Always Anjali
Sheetal Sheth
Anjali can't find her name on a bike license plate, gets teased at school, and decides to be proud of it.
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Alma and How She Got Her Name
Juana Martinez-Neal
Alma thinks her name is too long, until her father tells her where each part came from.
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Chrysanthemum
Kevin Henkes
Chrysanthemum loves her name until kids at school make fun of it.
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My Name Is Sangoel
Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed
A refugee boy from Sudan finds a way to help his new classmates say his Dinka name.
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My Name Is Yoon
Helen Recorvits
Yoon, new from Korea, doesn't want to write her name in English letters.
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René Has Two Last Names
René Colato Laínez
René, new from El Salvador, gets teased for having two last names until he presents his family tree. English and Spanish.
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Say My Name
Joanna Ho
Kids from different cultures share what their names mean and how to say them.
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The Day You Begin
Jacqueline Woodson
About walking into a classroom where no one seems like you. Pairs well with the books on names.