Thao

Thao tells a story about names. Growing up with a name that is “different” and unfamiliar to the community, Thao, a girl who immigrated from Vietnam to Canada, experienced quite a lot of difficulties. Thao’s name is short, having only four letters. Each letter can be found in many other “common” names, such as Tom, Henry, Amy, and Olivia. Even so, her name gets misspelled, mispronounced, and misunderstood, all, the, time! She eventually learns to recognize and answer to all kinds of strange names people give her, such as Towel! It’s not easy being Thao, sighs the little girl. So she decided to name herself – Jennifer. Being Jennifer is easy, and life goes on smoothly, until Jennifer finds out her mom packs G i cu n (Vietnamese spring roll) for lunch! That’s Thao’s favourite! There, Thao is embracing her original name after all for that's who she really is.

The story stems out of the lived experience of the author and illustrator Thao Lam who is so elegantly good at telling a story in an authentic, child-like and funny tone. Reading the text, you would feel like you’re listening to a child speaking from the bottom of her heart as if she’s standing right in front of you. I enjoyed the tempo of the text, the fine alternations of long descriptive sentences and short oral phrases. For example, when talking about her name being mispronounced, Thao said:

Letters get added, scrambled, and left behind. (The author uses a more formal sentence to give the reader context).
Thou. Sigh
Tail! Where did the L come from?
Toe? Not. Even. Close.
(An informal writing style is used here to present a dialogic scene; hence the reader can see how the miscalling of Thao’s name plays out and how Thao feels during those scenarios).

Being the illustrator of her own story gives Thao a lovely advantage to add a personal touch to the illustration. She uses photos from her childhood in the collage of diverse children in the school setting. That allows the reader to know who Thao is and relate to the girl’s voice. Another unique approach in the illustration is the playing of print–Thao uses different fonts, colours, and styles to emphasize all the names she was called, providing an overwhelming vibe to the reader to empathize with the girl’s emotions.

There are lots of thought-provoking issues addressed in Thao within the delightful and humorous storytelling, issues such as language, culture, and identity. Names are a significant component of one’s self. For young immigrant children, particularly those who have a “different” name, how individuals, schools, communities, and society at large respond to their unique names has a profoundly long-lasting impact on their identity-making. It would be wonderful to have this book available to children, families, and educators in classrooms and libraries to start conversations around these important topics. Hopefully, today’s immigrant children will have a different story to tell in the future about their names.