MultiCultural: That's Not My Name!

Book Review:

 That's Not My Name!

By: Anoosha Syed

Summary:

"Thats Not My Name!" is a beautiful and uplifting picture book about accepting your name, finding your voice, and standing up for yourself. It depicts the narrative of Mirha, a little girl who is excited about her first day of school and the chances that await her. However, things take an unexpected turn when her peers are unable to pronounce her name correctly. Despite her greatest efforts to correct them, they continue to pronounce it incorrectly. Mirha, feeling annoyed and ashamed, begins to consider changing her name completely.

Genre & Illustrations:

            This fictitious novel serves as a reminder that mispronouncing someone's name can have consequences for their feeling of identity and belonging. Not only do children from immigrant families or those with non-Western names go through this; but indigenous people also go through it. The narrative is understandable and applicable to everyone who has ever felt insulted or disadvantaged because of their name.

Activities:

            Role-playing this book allows kids to act out the difficulties that the main character, Mirha, faces. This can also help children discover their voice and overcome their shyness by speaking out about something they are proud of. Improvisation increases excitement for reading and improves oral reading abilities. This also allows children to investigate and analyze significant events in the novel, as well as the perspectives and motives of other characters.

Comments:

        As someone who has struggled with others mispronouncing my name, this book has pushed me to keep correcting individuals who get it incorrectly. It supports the notion that our names are an essential component of our identity and should be respected, appreciated, and honored by others. With its fascinating plot, beautiful graphics, and significant message, "Thats Not My Name!" is a must-read for both young readers and adults.

References:
Galda, L., Liang, L., & Cullinan, B. (2017) Literature and the Child, 9th edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-60239-2 

Syed, A., & Ramahi, D. (2023). That’s not my name! Playaway Products, LLC.

Comments

  1. mylifecounts2011May 4, 2024 at 11:37 AM

    I think this book would be a great choice in a classroom. Children come from different parts of the world and their names are sometimes hard to pronounce. This would be a great book to talk about everyone's differences and how we all should respect them. A good activity for this book would be to have children write their name in a unique way describing them and have them paint it. They can then tell why they designed it that way.

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