Although I wish I had had this book to share last month, it was certainly worth the wait from the library. Thao, a Picture Book by Thao Lam is a story about her name and the obstacles and racism she faced as a child all around her name. It’s a book not only for children but for their adults too, so we can be sure we are listening and treating the people in our lives with respect and that comes first and foremost by learning how to pronounce their names.

Thao is a child at school for whom life is not easy. If she had a name like Henry or Olivia, maybe things would be easier. Thao gets called so many names other than the one she was given and shares with readers how life would be simpler if she was Jennifer.

This story pulls no punches, especially on the page where Thao lists all of the names she was called as a child and many were cruel and hurtful. It serves as an important reminder to adults to be the example, to make the effort to say people’s names correctly. When adults lead, then children will follow and ensure we are being respectful of everyone. 

Thao is a fantastic book for teachers to share at the beginning of a school year, to celebrate all of the new names in the class and show each member that their names are important to learn.

The illustrations also by Thao Lam are brilliant. We love how all of the illustrations are beautiful paper cut likenesses of people but Thao is an actual picture of herself, cut out from what I can imagine are family photos from when she was a child. There is power to her showing herself, to not being depicted in an illustrated way but as herself as a child. It shows readers that there is a real person behind the name and a real person who is hurt when they are called things other than the name they are give or choose for themselves.