What’s Your Name?

“Everyone has one.../ or maybe a few.// So what’s in a name?/ What does it do?” Deeney Murguia explores the utility of names in this picture book of appellative connection. Energetic, consistently metered and rhymed lines (“A name is a meeting,/ a greeting,/ a call.// A name looks for comfort/ after a fall”) alternate with group images of beings using their names. In an appealingly muted color palette, a community portrayed with varied abilities, ages, body types, and skin tones offers greetings to each other and to various animals, including a duck and a dog. As the pages turn, prose touches on how names (printed in red text throughout) can be used in different scenarios, signify important ties, and even evolve over time. It’s a moving exploration of what names can be and do—one that ends with an open invitation: “What’s yours?” Ages 3–7. (Nov.)