My Name Is a Story: An Empowering First Day of School Book for Kids

by Ashanti, Monica Mikai (Illustrator)

From Grammy Award-winning singer Ashanti comes an empowering story about a girl who learns to love her unique name. First days aren’t easy for a girl with a name like Ashanti. It feels like no one can pronounce it correctly! But with some encouragement from her mom, Ashanti spells her name and learns just how special it is. A is for awesome, S is for sunsets, H is for hand games, A is for art… Inspired by Ashanti’s own experience, this delightful picture book shares the joy that one child finds in her name. A perfect pick for classrooms and all story times!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, School, Art, Audiobook

40 pages, Hardcover

Published July 12, 2022

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written by singer and songwriter Ashanti Douglas. Some of her songs in the early 2000s were "Rock Wit U (Aww Baby)," "Foolish," "Happy," "Baby," and many others. She also sang vocals and wrote songs that featured Jennifer Lopez (J. Lo) that she was not originally credited for.

In this book, Ashanti explores what it was like growing up with a name that people deemed too difficult to pronounce. I can also relate. Even to this day, people still struggle with pronouncing my full first name, Sadonna. I tell people all the time it's like Madonna but with an S. Because if you know how to spell and pronounce the name of a White woman who is considered to be the "Queen of Pop," then you can do the same for my name. In the words of Birdman, "Put some respeck on my name!" Lol.

This book has beautiful and colorful illustrations and is very uplifting and moving. I honestly teared up a bit. It was published in 2022, and Ashanti dedicated the book to her future child. We now know that she had her first child earlier this year. While I don't agree with her and Nelly spinning the block on each other, I respect her choices. Ashanti's music was introduced to me by my oldest sister. I happen to be reading this on my sister's death anniversary today (December 1).

[Eryka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a delightful story with poetic language, colorful imagery, and sweet affirmations. My daughter and I enjoyed this story. Her name is unique as is the spelling of mine. We each appreciated the uplifting theme behind the story. It was a great conversation starter and a good debut book for this author.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow that's a pretty shameful rip-off of Your Name Is a Song.

[Jared White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable pictures and nice text tell the story of Ashanti's name and her becoming comfortable and proud of it. I didn't like this quite as much as Your Name Is a SongYour Name Is a Song but it was still quite good.

Side note: some of the poor ratings seem to be strictly related to the audiobook version of this so I almost think they should be disregarded. As with most picture books, it is the text and illustrations working together that makes (or breaks) the book.

[Anna Tharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very sweet and empowering book about a little girl struggling with her challenging name for others to say correctly. She gets upset that her name is not simple like the other students in her class, but her mom reassures her that her name has a beautiful background and story to it that comes from different family members and traditions. The author is portraying the message that everyone's name has a story that makes them unique in their own way and we should be proud of that. This can be used in the classroom for students to explain the story behind their own individual names to encourage self love and confidence.

[SamSamSam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the premise of this book! The illustrations were gorgeous as well. If I'm being picky, I wish there would have been stronger parallel structure. The same number of words mentioned for each letter of Ashanti's name, for example, and strong vocabulary that actually starts with the letter, rather than phrases like "a TINY fib from my mischievous lips" for T. However, I do love this publishing trend of giving attention and love to non-white names and setting the expectation that they be pronounced correctly.

[Elaine Fultz, Teacher Librarian, MLS · Rating 2 out of 5]

So... as an old lady librarian, I am not familiar with this performer, so it's tricky to read this properly without a pronunciation guide. The whole POINT is getting her name right, and yet it is assumed that the readers will know it already, like Beyonce. But, believe it or not, there are folks out there who wouldn't know how to pronounce that name either without including it in the story or having to do a little research before reading it aloud. Worth noting is the acrostic at the end which could inspire a short writing assignment with students' own names.

[Maddie Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I would read this to my students on the first day of school to get them excited and inspired for the year. I would have them do an activity after reading and tell their friends a story about their name. I think this book was so sweet and truly empowering. I loved the characters story and how easy it was to follow for young kids.

[Susan Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had this book years ago. This is the book answer for children who feel disenfranchised because adults (teachers, etc) can't pronounced their names or worse, give them a nickname which is "easier" to say. Names are identity and this book gives children the pride that they need to assert their names with pride and to direct other people to see how important their names are.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

My Name is a Story by Ashanti is not a story. I received this short six minute audio from Libro.fm. If you young have children in the car it could be a quick distraction, but beyond that there isn’t much to it.

Unfortunately, it’s a flop for me.

[Sean Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ashanti Albums #1
I don't know the music of Ashanti, and whilst her name sounds vaguely familiar, I know nothing about her, but this is a decent read with a good perspective on respecting and owning your own name.

[booksforbrit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short audio - thank you Libro!

Perfect for kids to listen on a car ride!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book (via Libro.fm) as I look for classroom ideas. This didn’t really appeal to me. Earlier this year I read Your Name is a Song (Thompkins-Bigelow) and it was much richer.

[Candice M (tinylibrarian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, empowering story to help children appreciate both their and others’ names.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for this book about celebrating your unique name

[Clementine]

this has been done before, but this is sweet and serviceable

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Jari Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

My name is a story that was written by parents. I love these story and children who have unique names like mine will see how powerful our names are.

[KMitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A celebration of the special story behind a child's name and a reminder of how important it can be to learn to say/spell someone's name correctly.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book for the beginning of the school year. It encourages kids to think about why their names are special. I love the acrostic at the end.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to LibroFM for an advanced listening copy of this title.

My Name is a Story is a semi-autobiographical story of how singer/author Ashanti grew up with an uncommon name. For many people, her name was too much - too difficult to spell, too difficult to pronounce, too "weird". With her mother's help, Ashanti grew to love her name and feel proud of it. This is such an empowering story. It's perfect for teachers to read during the beginning of the school year when learning lots of new names.