Brief Factual Information:
Title: The Name Jar
Author and Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
Publication Year: 2001
Title: The Name Jar
Author and Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
Publication Year: 2001
Prompts: Plot Summary: This is the story of Unhei. She just moved from the United States from Korea. At school she is afraid the kids will make fun of her because she is different, especially her name. So, with the help of her classmates she is going to pick a new name. She has a jar with all the suggestions from the class in it to pick a name. But one boy Joey helps her realize that she should keep her Korean name. In the end Unhei realizes she is special just the way she is. Artistic Medium: This book is painted using bright colors. Specifically a lot of bright reds, blues, yellows, and greens. This catches the reader/viewer's attention and eye while also providing a happy tone to the text so that in the end children with unique names will be proud of themselves. Style: The style of this book is cartoon. Parts of the cartoon are trying to look realistic, for example the people, but the trees are lacking in detail (just round) giving a playful vibe. | Strong Vocabulary: Since this is the story of a Korean girl there is Korean words, for example Unhei, Kimchi, and Chinku. But the text does a good job of giving a definition to these words. Figurative Langauge: There is rhyming and made up words when the kids try to say Unhei. They say things like "you-hey" and "goodbye you-hey". Relationship of Pictures to Words: The relationship of pictures to words in this book is complementary. The words and pictures work together to tell the story and the pictures show somethings the words don't. Especially parts that show Unhei using her Korean name stamp, the images give a good idea what that looks like and how the writing look. Themes/Central Concepts: The central concept of this book is the idea of culturally different names and how children see that as a bad thing, but its really not. Children want so badly to fit in but they don't understand that most of their peers will accept them because of their personality not how their name sounds. Uses for this book: This book is perfect for teachers to use in a classroom where there may be a student who is culturally different. The teacher could read this in the beginning of the year as a simple reminder for the student that its okay to be different and for the rest of the class as how to act. |
Images from the text