Book Reviews & Awards: Praise for My Name Is Yoon: "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." ~ School Library Journal, starred review. "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." ~ Publishers Weekly, starred review. "This is a humorous picture book that explores the feelings a young korean girl as she enters an American school. She struggles with the adjustment to a new language and wants to keep her name as it is in the Korean language. She fights writing her name in english by making up different names for herself, including "bird" and "cat." By the end of the story Yoon has learned to accept that she may have to behave differently in America but that she can still retain her pride for her culture." ~ Becca at Good Reads. "What I like about this book is how this short book addresses so many feelings and changes in so few pages. Yoon does not want to be in America, and is having a little trouble adjusting, but after time she begins to feel more comfortable. This would be great to read aloud in a class and opening a discussion on when the students have felt uncomfortable in a new situation. Reading this book would be useful to help DLL to share how their names are written in their home languages. It would be very nice if a parent or parents could be brought in to help write all of the student's names in different languages and displaying the names in the hallway for visitors to see. At one booth at a multicultural fair this past school year a family from China did this for anyone who stopped by, and it was a big hit! I only wish the teacher in the story would have asked Yoon to show her her name written in Korean. Terrific book though!"~ Good Reads. Getting to feel at home in a new country Yoon’s name means "shining wisdom," and when she writes it in Korean, it looks happy, like dancing figures. But her father tells her that she must learn to write it in English. In English, all the lines and circles stand alone, which is just how Yoon feels in the United States. Yoon isn’t sure that she wants to be YOON. At her new school, she tries out different names—maybe CAT or BIRD. Maybe CUPCAKE! Helen Recorvits’s spare and inspiring story about a little girl finding her place in a new country is given luminous pictures filled with surprising vistas and dreamscapes by Gabi Swiatkowska. My Name Is Yoon is a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year.