In honor of celebrating black history month, I thought it would be exciting to share one of my favorite children book written by brilliant black authors each week.
To start off the month, I would like to share the following book:
Your Name Is A Song • 2020
Your Name Is A Song is a 24-page picture book written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow.
This book tells a story about a young girl who was frustrated with her teachers and peers because her name gets mispronounced and is often overlooked as different. As the little girl is feeling upset, her mother brightens her spirits by teaching her the beauty, history and the musicality of names from different cultures (African, Black-American, etc.) while walking home from the city.
Overall, my favorite thing about this book is reminding ourselves to celebrate our identities and where we came from; this story touches on other meaningful themes such as the importance of pronouncing and spelling names correctly (it creates a sense of belonging), celebrating culture and diversity, taking pride in identities, accepting other’s differences, and self-love and worth. Another aspect that I liked about the story is how interactive it is; in the story, the author includes pronunciation of the different names mentioned in the books for the readers.
Lastly, the colorful artwork is beautifully illustrated by Luisa Uribe with the use of vibrant colors and cute images; this is illustrated with the use of pencil colors, making it look whimsical which peaks the interests of young children who are between 5 – 10 years old.
Comment down below if you have read this book! Let me know who your favorite author is!