HANNAH IS MY NAME

This thoughtful offering is based on Yang’s own immigration story, and is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Hannah, who moves with her mother and father from Taiwan to San Francisco. The story is richly detailed, and effectively conveys what it’s like to come to a new country from a faraway place and adjust to life in unfamiliar surroundings. The child changes her name (they choose Hannah, because it’s deemed easy to learn) and the family waits for the green cards that will ensure their future in America. The tension is palpable. Yang’s colorful gouache illustrations effectively convey this mix of excitement and anxiety. Despite a jarring reference to Martin Luther King Jr. that places the otherwise contemporary-sounding tale in the 1960s, Yang’s offering is winner—a spot-on depiction of the immigrant experience in America. (Picture book. 5-10)