What's Your Name?

by Bethanie Deeney Murguia, Bethanie Deeney Murguia (Illustrator)

Overview

What’s your name? Maybe you’ll find it in this effervescent picture book—an ode to an important part of each of us from the creator of The Favorite Book.

Everyone has one . . .
or maybe a few.
So what’s in a name?
What does it do?

Names hold power. They can be a greeting, provide comfort, act as a warning, or honor our ancestors and heroes. Sometimes growing into a name, or selecting a new one, can take a little time. Names connect us to others and help create who we are and what makes us uniquely special. With an engaging visual narrative buzzing with people and names of all stripes, and a lilting text that’s perfect for reading aloud, the creator of The Favorite Book and Do You Believe in Unicorns? offers a celebratory and affirming story that will have readers reflecting on their names—and proudly sharing them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536218565
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	173,170
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Bethanie Deeney Murguia is the author-illustrator of I Feel Five!, The Best Parts of Christmas, Do You Believe in Unicorns?, and The Favorite Book, among many others. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/10/2022

“Everyone has one.../ or maybe a few.// So what’s in a name?/ What does it do?” Deeney Murguia explores the utility of names in this picture book of appellative connection. Energetic, consistently metered and rhymed lines (“A name is a meeting,/ a greeting,/ a call.// A name looks for comfort/ after a fall”) alternate with group images of beings using their names. In an appealingly muted color palette, a community portrayed with varied abilities, ages, body types, and skin tones offers greetings to each other and to various animals, including a duck and a dog. As the pages turn, prose touches on how names (printed in red text throughout) can be used in different scenarios, signify important ties, and even evolve over time. It’s a moving exploration of what names can be and do—one that ends with an open invitation: “What’s yours?” Ages 3–7. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

As narrated in jaunty verse and clarified through speech bubbles, this spirited offering invites children to discover, ponder, and discuss fascinating things about names. . . Grown-ups should absolutely encourage lively post-reading discussion with kids—and note the characters’ final question (“what’s yours?”); response guaranteed! . . . What’s a name for this richly satisfying book? Winner.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Deeney Murguia explores the utility of names in this picture book of appellative connection. . . . As the pages turn, prose touches on how names (printed in red text throughout) can be used in different scenarios, signify important ties, and even evolve over time. It’s a moving exploration of what names can be and do—one that ends with an open invitation: 'What’s yours?'
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

There may be no word more special than your own name, and this poetic discussion of what’s in a name welcomes readers to enjoy their names and the reasons behind them.
—The Virginian Pilot

From the Publisher

★ 2022-09-14
What’s in a name?

According to this thought-provoking conversation sparker, lots—more than readers probably realized. Names are fraught with meaning and spring from varied sources. As narrated in jaunty verse and clarified through speech bubbles, this spirited offering invites children to discover, ponder, and discuss fascinating things about names—their own and those of parents, family members, friends, neighbors, and others, even pets. Many kids may never have thought about names this way. They will learn names aren’t just personal identifiers, but also have functions. Names can be familiar or unique. They can honor people from history or pay homage to seasons, weather, birthplaces, and birth times. What if our names don’t suit us? We can “try new names, or add on a bit, / give them a whirl, and see how they fit”—as in the scene depicting a light-skinned child wearing a tutu who adds an A to their name (turning Louis to Louisa) and looks admiringly in a mirror. Perhaps this book’s greatest strengths are its cheery declarations, portrayals of diversity—in race, ethnicity, attire, and physical ability (a child fingerspells their name in ASL)—and depictions of respectful camaraderie and pride in being unabashedly oneself, expressed through text and charming illustrations, created with traditional printmaking methods and assembled digitally. Grown-ups should absolutely encourage lively post-reading discussion with kids—and note the characters’ final question (“what’s yours?”); response guaranteed! (This book was reviewed digitally.)

What’s a name for this richly satisfying book? Winner. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews