My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada

Maria Isabel is a little girl that has just moved into a new neighborhood with her family. Life seems to be turned upside down for this little girl when she gets to school and finds that there are already two other little girls in her class with the name Maria. In order to simplify things, the teacher decides that Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez should be called Mary Lopez. Due to this name change, this little girl looses her sense of self. She does not know how to respond to the name Mary Lopez, because that is not her name. Her entire demeanor changes and she is unhappy. Throughout the book, Maria Isabel struggles with the change, but doesn't ever say anything to anyone about how much she dislikes being called Mary. She is proud of her name and wishes to be called by it but doesn't know how to approach the teacher. One day, however, the teacher assigns a writing project that is entitled "My Greatest Wish". Maria Isabel starts out with several wishes, but then decides that her greatest wish is to be called Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez instead of Mary Lopez. The teacher listens to what Maria Isabel has written and she corrects her mistake. I think that this is a fabulous book. I was able to relate very closely with this book. I am named after both my grandmothers and one name without the other is just not the same. I have battled my whole life trying to make people understand that my name is both names together, not just Mary. A person's name is something important to each person, it is something you need to always get right. In this book, the teacher was trying to simplify life for her, but she was forgetting the most important part, how it made the child feel. She never even asked. I think that as future educators we are responsible for not only thinking about our actions, but also in this type of situation, asking about how our action directly will affect the child. We do not want to put the children in our classroom into an environment that prevents learning all because we have decided something that simplifies our own lives. The children are the most important thing in our classroom and we should support them in any way possible. The first day of class when roll is called, we should make it a point to ask the children if there is something else that they would prefer to be called and respect their changes if there are any, as long as they are within reason of course. I think that this is a fabulous book. The book is obviously too advanced for kindergarten, however, it could possibly be used in a read aloud over several days, or read just a portion to convey a point about the importance of names and respecting the things that make us all unique.