Hannah Is My Name

Hannah is my name in this new country. It doesn't sound at all like my Chinese name, Na-Li, which means beautiful.

It's a long way from Taiwan to San Francisco, but Hannah's family has made the journey because they want to make America their home. Here in America, Baba tells his daughter, people are free to say what they think, and children can grow up to be whatever they choose. And so Hannah takes a new name, begins a new school, learns a new language, and starts to adjust to a new way of life. Meanwhile, they all wait — and hope — for the arrival of the green cards that will assure they are finally home to stay.

A young Chinese girl and her parents emigrate to the United States and try their best to assimilate into their San Francisco neighborhood while anxiously awaiting the arrival of their green cards.

The United States has long been a place of refuge and opportunity for immigrants from all countries. It has been the destination for millions seeking to make their dreams of a better life come true. This book celebrates our shared history of hope by telling the story of a little girl who is waiting for her green card and who meanwhile must adjust to a new language, a new school, a new way of life... even a new name.

Beverley Fahey - Children's Literature

For Na-Li, America is a place of a new language, new foods, new customs, and even a new name, Hannah. With charm and spunk the little girl narrates her family's story from their arrival in America through the long wait for the coveted green card. In a cramped apartment they wait, while a friendly employer ignores Baba's legal status and offers him a janitorial job. While they wait, Hannah shops at Woolworth's, learns to read Curious George, hears in school about a man named Martin Luther King who wanted all people to be treated kindly, and walks with her mother to Chinatown where every shop window reminds her of home. Always they must be watchful for the officials who may deport them like her friend Janie's family. At last the green cards arrive and Hannah and her family do not have to "make ourselves small . . . America is our home." Countless immigrant children will see themselves in Hannah's story. The stylized drawings have a childlike charm and are colored in vivid hues. The endpapers of rural China give way to the skyline of San Francisco and the flow is seamless. Beneath Hannah's voice which is sweet and innocent is a plucky little girl who speaks with pride for immigrant children everywhere. This would be an ideal read-aloud in so many of our classrooms that now resemble mini United Nations. 2004, Candlewick, Ages 6 to 10.

Belle Yang was born in 1960 in Taiwan and came to the United States with her parents at the age of seven. She has studied at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design and the Beijing Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting. She has had solo museum shows and has written and illustrated two highly praised adult books and a picture book. She says, "HANNAH IS MY NAME is based on our first years in San Francisco. I missed my old friends and teacher, but it was not a miserable yearning. It was a great privilege to come to the United States, and we didn't look back."