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Summary Of The Name Jar By Yangsook Choi

640 Words3 Pages

An analysis of the writing and illustrations of Yangsook Choi’s multicultural children’s picture book titled The Name Jar. This picture book was written and illustrated by Yangsook Choi and was published in 2001 by Random House, Inc. Publications. The story follows a young Korean girl named Unhei through her move to America. The Name Jar won the Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Master List in 2003 and was a nominee of the Arizona Young Readers Award in 2005. Yangsook Choi incorporates precise vocabulary into the story to describe the action and the setting. While looking out the bus window on the first day of school Unhei sees “strange buildings and houses”. This conveys to the reader that the story is taking place in a setting that is new to Unhei. On the school bus the other …show more content…

The story also contains figurative language. Unhei “fingered the little block of wood in her pocket” and it reminded her of when she left Korea. The term fingered has multiple meanings, but in this case it is being used to convey that Unhei touched the little block of wood. Throughout the story Choi incorporates dialogue to help convey the characters feelings. “I don’t want to be different from the American kids” expresses that Unhei feels like she does not fit in with the American children in her school. When Unhei expresses to her mother that she wants an American name her mother responds by saying “Unhei is a beautiful name”. Then when Unhei goes to Mr. Kim’s Market with her mother Mr. Kim tells her “what a beautiful name, doesn’t it mean grace?” This provides the reader with an unexpected insight because Choi understated the meaning of the story to look like a girl who

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