My Name Is Yoon (Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, 2004)

From School Library Journal Kindergarten-Grade 2-With subtle grace, this moving story depicts a Korean girl's difficult adjustment to her new life in America. Yoon, or "Shining Wisdom," decides that her name looks much happier written in Korean than in English ("I did not like YOON. Lines. Circles. Each standing alone"). Still, she struggles to please her parents by learning an unfamiliar language while surrounded by strangers. Although her teacher encourages her to practice writing "Yoon," the child substitutes other words for her name, words that better express her inner fears and hopes. Calling herself "CAT," she dreams of hiding in a corner and cuddling with her mother. As "BIRD," she imagines herself flying back to Korea. Finally, she pretends she is "CUPCAKE," an identity that would allow her to gain the acceptance of her classmates. In the end, she comes to accept both her English name and her new American self, recognizing that however it is written, she is still Yoon. Swiatkowska's stunningly spare, almost surrealistic paintings enhance the story's message. The minimally furnished rooms of Yoon's home are contrasted with views of richly hued landscapes seen through open windows, creating a dreamlike quality that complements the girl's playful imaginings of cats on the chalkboard, trees growing on walls, and a gleeful flying cupcake. At first glance, Yoon seems rather static, but her cherubic face reveals the range of her feelings, from sadness and confusion to playfulness, and finally pride. A powerful and inspiring picture book. Teri Markson, Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School, Los Angeles Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist K-Gr. 2. "I wanted to go back home to Korea. I did not like America. Everything was different here." Yoon doesn't want to learn the new ways. Her simple, first-person narrative stays true to the small immigrant child's bewildered viewpoint, and Swiatkowska's beautiful paintings, precise and slightly surreal, capture her sense of dislocation. Reminiscent of the work of Allen Say, the images set close-ups of the child at home and at school against traditional American landscapes distanced through window frames. In a classroom scene many children will relate to, everything is stark, detailed, and disconnected--the blackboard, the teacher's gestures, one kid's jeering face--a perfect depiction of the child's alienation. By the end, when Yoon is beginning to feel at home, the teacher and children are humanized, the surreal becomes playful and funny instead of scary, and Yoon is happy with friends in the wide, open school yard. Now she is part of the landscape. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “With subtle grace, this moving story depicts a Korean girl's difficult adjustment to her new life in America...Swiatkowska's stunningly spare, almost surrealistic paintings enhance the story's message.” ― Starred, School Library Journal “As noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes....Yoon may be new to America, but her feelings as an outsider will be recognizable to all children.” ― Starred, Publishers Weekly I grew up in a small city much like the town in Goodbye, Walter Malinski . My grandparents were immigrants from Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine, and my parents were children during the Depression years. Determination and hope got them through those difficult times. Even though they experienced many hardships, they always found something to smile about.I remember my mother reading to me when I was two years old. My favorite book was about Cinderella. She wore a beautiful pink-and-white gown that looked like a great big birthday cake. I began writing my own stories and sharing them with my cousins when I was eight years old. When I was a teenager, I wrote a weekly column for a local newspaper. Later, I graduated from Rhode Island College with degrees in education and psychology.Today I live with my husband in the peaceful, woodsy town of Glocester, Rhode Island. I have two grown sons, and I am a second-grade teacher. I love reading and writing stories about interesting characters -- people trying to find their place in life, people with hope in their hearts. If you’re born on this planet, you’re set for a colorful life, whether you want it or not.xa0 I found myself in Eastern Europe, in southern Poland, in a little village with a weird name.I don’t remember making that decision.The first thing I remember are the crows. xa0Crows are to Poland what ravens are to London.xa0 The crows would hold daily conferences right in front of my house, spreading their black selves like a carpet over the grassy field.xa0 I’d run up to them and watch them rise like a shimmering giant, watch the sky swallow them up.I wrote stories until it was decided that there was too much kissing going on―in the stories, of course, not in real life. I was forbidden to write any more.xa0 I drew pictures, of princesses mostly. xa0As there were no objections, I kept at it all through elementary school, gymnasium, college, and right into my professional life.While at elementary school, I really did believe I was a princess. xa0Not the Disney kind, but one more along the lines of a Russian folktale, the princess lost and never found, waiting patiently for the day it was officially announced. I entered the Lyceum of Art at fourteen and discovered it was full of princesses, as well as knights.xa0 Sometime around the third year of school it dawned on me that if I was the “lost and never found” kind of princess, there was no use waiting for the official announcement.xa0 So I climbed on top of my wardrobe to take a look at things from a different perspective and decided it was time to go to America.I took my dog with me.xa0 My dog was very fond of eating toilet paper, and since we had no such commodity in Poland at the time, I figured he’d do better in America.xa0 Plus, I couldn’t bear to leave him behind.Gabi Swiatkowska was born in Tychy, Poland, and attended the Lyceum of Art in Bielsko-Biala, as well as the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Read more