The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi -- Day 59

On Unhei’s first day of school in America, kids on the bus tease her about her hard-to-pronounce Korean name. Arriving in her classroom, she doesn’t share her name, saying only that she plans to pick a new one. Her teacher and classmates respond with enthusiastic support, creating a name jar for all the suggestions they have. Unhei tries out each name, sometimes in front of her bathroom mirror, to see which one suits her: Daisy, Miranda, Laura…. Well, none of them seems right. Besides, Unhei reminds herself, her mother and grandmother chose her name carefully. “Unhei” means “grace,” and she treasures the wooden name stamp with the beautiful Korean character that her grandmother gave her. So, back at school she proudly introduces herself using her given name, and her classmates work hard to pronounce it correctly – “Yoon-hye.” Her new friend Joey even asks Mr. Kim at the Korean grocery to find a name stamp for him: “Chinku,” meaning “friend.”  Written and illustrated by Korean-born Yangsook Choi, The Name Jar is a warm-hearted, realistic story, a gift to all children and their adults. Ages 4-8.

Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History, by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Floyd Cooper -- Day 58

Even as a child, Frederick was a thoughtful and serious person. Born a slave in Maryland in 1818, he was fortunate at age nine to be sent to a household whose mistress started to teach him to read alongside her own children. Her husband prohibited it; the deeply held belief among slave owners was that slaves would read ideas that would make them restless and insurgent. Frederick understood what was happening: “If learning to read would make him unfit to be a slave, then that’s what Frederick would do.” Though his growing ability to read and speak out brought him difficulties, he continued to seek sources of information and experience. Working for his owner in shipyards, he met free black men whose stories inspired him to escape north disguised as a free black sailor. Making a home in the whaling city of New Bedford and taking the new last name of Douglass, Frederick allied with abolitionists who supported his dream of freedom for black people. Readers learn that Douglass penned his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave at age twenty-eight, and played a key role in articulating the cause of freedom even as the nation became more divided. Believing that the Civil War was a gateway to abolition, he encouraged men of color to fight for the North, which they did in significant numbers. In 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery, was passed. Douglass continued to speak out and work for the rights of all Americans, including the rights of women, for thirty more years. His legacy is immeasurable. Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of numerous books conveying African American history and experience, makes yet another superb contribution with Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History, a picture book biography gracefully, effectively illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Ages 5-10.

St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning, by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jan Brett -- Day 57

Author Eve Bunting is a Northern Ireland-born American who has written a great variety of wonderful books for young people. Says her publisher: “She never shies away from addressing difficult issues, including racial prejudice, death, troubled families, and war; at the same time, her work is infused with hope and beauty.” Bunting says of herself that she grew up listening to the stories of shanachies (tellers of old tales) and thinks, “Maybe I’m a bit of a shanachie myself.” St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning is a contemporary but ageless story. Young Jamie longs to march in his village’s St. Patrick’s Day parade wearing the glorious green sashes that his father and older brothers do. But, they tell him, he is too young to join the parade and certainly too small to climb up the high hill. Undaunted, Jamie wakes before dawn, climbs Acorn Hill by himself, proclaims “A happy St. Pat’s to you, sun” at the top, pipes on his flute the whole way, and returns home before breakfast. His family never knows what he has done, but Jamie knows in his heart that no one is too young to march in a parade and give a hearty greeting for a good cause. Jan Brett’s lively illustrations (black and white distinctively accented with yellow and green) capture perfectly Jamie’s Irish village and his spirited adventure. Ages 4-7.

This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration, by Linda Barrett Osborne -- Day 56

America has long been thought of as a land of opportunity by both those who live here and those who may wish to come. Most of us have a general perception of our country as welcoming others who seek freedom and a better life. But since colonial times and continuing to the present day, immigration has been a complex and ever-changing situation. Drawing on numerous original sources – including policy documents, publications of the times, personal stories, and archival photographs – author Linda Barrett Osborne presents a comprehensive, nuanced, highly informative yet very accessible history of immigration. She identifies sets of issues regarding our nation’s policies, practices, and public sentiment over three centuries. Indeed, at various points in the text, she poses explicit questions to readers for sharing and serious discussion. “Why do we sometimes invite immigration and sometimes fear it? How much does race play a part in whether we accept new immigrants? Does the legacy of our country’s origin as a group of English colonies still shape our attitudes?” We know that, except for native peoples who lived here before our continent was “discovered,” all our ancestors were immigrants. Immigrants sometimes came in waves activated by economic, religious, or social strife, or, simply, the prospect of a better life – Germans, Irish, English, Italians, Jews, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans and more. Why, then, do new immigrants and refugees, with the same hopes and dreams as those coming before, often face discrimination or outright exclusion? While the issues are complicated and our ability to be generous is sometimes compromised, we cannot deny that immigrants have brought rich diversity and growth to our country that could not have been obtained otherwise. This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration enables us to learn about our history and examine our attitudes, serving us well as we move forward. Ages 11 to adult.