Your name is a joyful song.<\/p>\n
And a song is meant to be sung.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s first note \u2014 wailed or cooed or sputtered<\/p>\n
Announcing:<\/p>\n
I am here.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never been here before.<\/p>\n
I have never been a child or grandchild or sibling or friend<\/p>\n
before, I am brand new<\/p>\n
The world is brand new<\/p>\n
An old star\u2019s new light<\/p>\n
lands on Earth<\/p>\n
for the first time.<\/p>\n
Your name is a song hum-whispered into your ear<\/p>\n
A call back to your ancestors in familiar rhythm<\/p>\n
A steady beat echoed toward the future, classically composed<\/p>\n
Ancient notes sung again and again and again.<\/p>\n
Your name is an anthem, a prayer, a chant<\/p>\n
Verses and vows everyone knows<\/p>\n
The baal toke\u2019ah\u2019s shofar blow, the muezzin\u2019s minaret cry,<\/p>\n
the foghorn\u2019s dampened bellow<\/p>\n
A wordless wave surging toward stillness within.<\/p>\n
Your name is born of a jam session and serendipity<\/p>\n
Stylings and riffs and improvisational jazz<\/p>\n
Melodies molded of brass and breath, pizzicato and pizzazz<\/p>\n
Plucky poppy plump<\/p>\n
arranged anew, a fresh start.<\/p>\n
Your name is a conversation<\/p>\n
We call, you respond in remembered refrains and impromptu tunes<\/p>\n
Symphonized in a pod of whales, a flock of birds, a herd of elephants<\/p>\n
Heard of now<\/p>\n
that you are here.<\/p>\n
Your name is a cacophony of clashes and karaoke<\/p>\n
buzzing billboards, neon night lights, colors unknown<\/p>\n
Small-town auda-city<\/p>\n
Buskers under Broadway, husky blues Sunday<\/p>\n
Divas, arias, enigmas, earworms<\/p>\n
A whistled one-hit wonder, a catalog of canci\u00f3nes<\/p>\n
Unforgettable. That\u2019s what you are.<\/p>\n
Your name is a song you wrote yourself, for yourself.<\/p>\n
The key change is the key change,<\/p>\n
Clouds lift, raindrops refract, a promise arcs harmoniously across the sky<\/p>\n
Striking all the right notes.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Awash in vibrant rainbowed watercolors, each page of Joyful Song: A Naming Story<\/em> by Lesl\u00e9a Newman and illustrated by Susan Gal evokes the warmth and energy of a lush, bustling city. Saturated brushstrokes layered with perfectly imprecise sketches soak the reader in a spectrum of color and community. I would be absorbed in this book for that alone, but like all outstanding picture books, this one contained layers of meaning and musicality. Lesl\u00e9a graciously agreed to be interviewed for this review.<\/p>\n Lesl\u00e9a (\u201cLez-LEE-uh\u201d) Newman\u2019s story is an invitation to the reader to come along to experience the joy of a baby naming ceremony. Written through a Jewish lens about the traditional naming of a child at the synagogue, the narrative\u2019s universality celebrates a much larger human experience \u2014 one that summons attention and asks a community to help welcome the planet\u2019s newest creature. She hopes the message that resonates most with young readers is this: \u201cThe world was not complete until you were in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Babies are born every day, but this brand new baby, sister of Zachary (and fur siblings Stella and Bella), daughter of Mama and Mommy, neighbor of Miss Fukumi, Mr. Baraka, and Mrs. Santiago, and congregant of the Rabbi, ultimately brings her community, Jewish and non-Jewish, together, to start her life with \u201clove and tenderness\u201d. It\u2019s \u201cwhat we all deserve\u201d from the beginning. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how they\u2019ll change the world, but they will change the world, with their own acts of tikkun olam [Hebrew for \u2018repairing the world\u2019], yet no one is expected to do it alone,\u201d Newman says. \u201cIt takes a village to support and hold each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing out of her personal identities and lived experiences as a Jewish lesbian woman in an intercultural marriage, many of her stories feature queer characters or Jewish characters. In Joyful Song: A Naming Story, both are prominent, but normalized. Zachary and his soon-to-be named baby sister have two moms, each read as a different racial identity than the other. Mama and Mommy are not didactic vehicles through which to explain that \u201csometimes people have two moms\u201d or that \u201clove is love\u201d. Rather Mama and Mommy get to be just that \u2013 parents, partners, neighbors, and community members. The inclusivity doesn\u2019t end there. As the family walks to the synagogue for \u201cLittle Babka\u2019s\u201d naming ceremony, they spontaneously invite neighbors to join them. In creating this community, Newman operated off of the one rule of improv: never say no, always say \u201cyes, and\u2026\u201d. She wanted the characters to \u201cbe open to what the day brings\u201d, so when they are asked to come along, the answer is always \u201cyes\u201d. There\u2019s \u201clost spontaneity in our culture\u201d and these community characters having \u201can experience they didn\u2019t plan on\u2026creates a world I want to live in.\u201d Add in a female rabbi, a diverse congregation, more LGBTQIA+ representation, and characters with disabilities, and we get Newman\u2019s and Gal\u2019s depiction of a loving and hopeful society. A world where all are welcome and all are welcomed.<\/p>\n Newman\u2019s story and Newman herself represent the sacred power and beautiful responsibility that come with naming a person, most often your own child, but sometimes\u2026yourself. The name you receive, the name you take, the name you choose is the first song sung about you. For you. By you. There are 8 billion songs being sung on the planet right now, but yours? Yours is unique. Yours is you. And you deserve to have it sung.<\/p>\n Your name is a joyful song.<\/p>\n A lullaby, your story.<\/p>\n Your name sings you home.<\/p>\n From the stars, the subway, the sacred space and embrace of your ancestors.<\/p>\n Your name is the song<\/p>\n you make all your own.<\/p>\n Your name is a joyful song<\/p>\n and songs are meant to be sung.<\/p>\n My name is a joyful song.<\/p>\n Let me sing it to you.<\/p>\n Aliza Werner (she\/her; \u201cAleeza\u201d) is an educator and consultant, children\u2019s literature reviewer, former teacher, and writer. She is the Professional Learning and Social Media Manager at Bookelicious, and works at Milwaukee Film to develop critical media literacy programs for educators, students, and families as a curriculum writer and fellowship facilitator. Aliza is passionate about literacy education as a holistic and joyful endeavor immersed in multimedia, multimodalities, and inclusive, representative children\u2019s literature. Her work is informed by her identity as an interfaith\/intercultural Jewish woman, and experience with mental health and acquired disability. Aliza holds a B.S. in Deaf Education from Boston University and M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She was a 2018 Kohl Teacher Fellowship State Finalist and 2021 Wilson Center For The Arts Educational Excellence Award Winner. She and her husband Nick have two kids with paws, Liffey (wheaten terrier) and Poet (mini schnauzer), and reside in Wisconsin. World traveler. Reader. Knitter. AIDS research advocate. Auntie.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your name is a joyful song. And a song is meant to be sung. It\u2019s first note \u2014 wailed or cooed or sputtered Announcing: I am here. I\u2019ve never been here before. I have never been a child or grandchild or sibling or friend before, I am brand new The world is brand new An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}