My Name Is Yoon

by Helen Recorvits, Gabi Swiatkowska (Illustrator)

Overview

Getting to feel at home in a new country

Yoon's name means "shining wisdom," and when she writes it in Korean, it looks happy, like dancing figures. But her father tells her that she must learn to write it in English. In English, all the lines and circles stand alone, which is just how Yoon feels in the United States. Yoon isn't sure that she wants to be YOON. At her new school, she tries out different names—maybe CAT or BIRD. Maybe CUPCAKE!

Helen Recorvits's spare and inspiring story about a little girl finding her place in a new country is given luminous pictures filled with surprising vistas and dreamscapes by Gabi Swiatkowska.

My Name Is Yoon is a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250057112
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	06/10/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	160,093
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

HELEN RECORVITS and GABI SWIATKOWSKA have collaborated on three books about Yoon. My Name Is Yoon was named an ALA Notable Book, among other honors, and Ms. Swiatkowska received the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for her artwork. Ms. Recorvits lives in North Scituate, Rhode Island. Ms. Swiatkowska lives in France.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"With subtle grace, this moving story depicts a Korean girl's difficult adjustment to her new life in America...Swiatkowska's stunningly spare, almost surrealistic paintings enhance the story's message." — Starred, School Library Journal

"As noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes....Yoon may be new to America, but her feelings as an outsider will be recognizable to all children." — Starred, Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

* With subtle grace, this moving story depicts a Korean girl's difficult adjustment to her new life in America. . . . Swiatkowska's stunningly spare, almost surrealistic paintings enhance the story's message.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“* As noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes. . . . Yoon may be new to America, but her feelings as an outsider will be recognizable to all children.” —Publishers Weekly, starred reivew

From the Publisher

"My name is Yoon. I came here from Korea, a country far away," begins Recorvits's (Goodbye, Walter Malinski) first-person narrative, as noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes. Swiatkowska's (Hannah's Bookmobile Christmas) opening spread similarly conveys a sense of starkness, with a landscape of rolling hills and towering trees in small clusters; the serene narrator appears in a white dress. With a turn of the page, readers see Yoon dwarfed by the seemingly endless checked flooring of her new American house. She sits at a large white table where her father teaches her to write her name in English ("I did not like YOON. Lines. Circles. Each standing alone. My name looks happy in Korean. The symbols dance together"). At school, Yoon refuses to write her name. Instead, she fills her paper with other words she learns from the teacher, such as cat. "I wrote CAT on every line. I wanted to be CAT.... My mother would find me and cuddle up close to me." Yoon's words betray her sadness and insecurity at relinquishing some of her Korean identity, while Swiatkowska's painterly artwork translates the girl's fantasies. A close-up of Yoon's face shows feline ears protruding from her jet-black hair, while in the background, a real cat balances on a window sill. A turning point comes when a classmate offers Yoon a cupcake, and the heroine imagines herself as one; her round face a leafed cherry atop the pastry as she floats above the classroom. Yoon may be new to America, but her feelings as an outsider will be recognizable to all children. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 2-A Korean child, feeling at odds in her American school, tries out various personas before accepting her English name. The stunning oil paintings reveal the girl's active imagination, positive attitude, and shining wisdom. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

An unhappy young immigrant seeks, and at last regains, a sense of self in this atmospheric, expressionistically illustrated episode. Instead of writing her own name on her papers at school, Yoon calls herself "Cat," then "Bird"-"I wanted to be BIRD. I wanted to fly, fly back to Korea"-and even, after a classmate's friendly culinary overture, "Cupcake." Ultimately, she finds her balance again: "I write my name in English now. It still means Shining Wisdom." Swiatkowska internalizes Yoon's adjustment, both by depicting her escape fantasies literally, and by placing figures against expanses of wall that are either empty of decoration, or contain windows opening onto distant, elaborate landscapes. Reminiscent of Allen Say's work for its tone, theme, and neatly drafted, often metaphorical art, this strongly communicates Yoon's feelings in words and pictures both. She is also surrounded by supportive adults, and her cultural heritage, though specified, is given such a low profile that she becomes a sort of everychild, with whom many young readers faced with a similar sense of displacement will identify. (Picture book. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews