Title: Alma and How She Got Her Name
Author(s): Juana Martinez-Neal
Illustrator/Photographer: Juana Martinez-Neal
Publisher and Year: Candlewick Press 2018
Number of pages: 29
Tags/Themes: Allison Henry, Culture, Family, Fiction, Picture Book, K-5
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Descriptive Annotation: Alma and How She Got Her Name is the story of Alma, a little girl with a long name. Alma complains to her dad and he tells her why he gave her all the names that he did. He tells her of Pura, her great-aunt who believed in the spirts of their ancestors, and of Jose, her grandfather who was an artist. Alma realizes that she is like each and every one of her namesakes and she begins to like her name. At the end of the book is an author’s note and students would need to know the terms for various familial relationships to understand this book. The illustrations are done in graphite and colored pencils.
Classroom Application: This text meets Social Emotional Learning Standard 2.B, “Recognize individual and group similarities and differences.” Alma recognizes the similarities between her and her ancestors. Once she realizes the similarities, she appreciates the similarities and wants to be more like her ancestors. This story could also be used in the classroom if there were instances of students that were being bullied for their names (i.e. a Latinx student comes to a predominantly white school and the white students are not kind to the Latinx student). This book could teach students appreciation for different names.
Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Analysis: This book is about a child with Spanish sounding names. Many of the illustrations include the Spanish words for the items in the picture. It teaches appreciation for the Spanish-speaking culture, as when Alma’s dad is explaining who Jose is, he says, “Your grandfather taught me to see and love our people.” It can lead students to wonder what the story of their name is.
