This beautiful picture book is unique and has an important message. The illustrations (for lack of a better term) are like multilayered scrapbook depictions of children, but Thao always a full color photo. It’s so unique and I’ve never seen anything like it. This book talks about other people’s inability - or unwillingness - to pronounce her name correctly. Name-based micro aggressions are demeaning and hurtful, and can cause children to battle with their sense of identity and culture. It isn’t easy being Thao, but hopefully books like this will make children (and parents) realize how important it is to have the respect to learn someone name.

Thank you @netgalley, @thaolamb and @owlkidspublishing for this cute and informative arc, in exchange for my honest review.
The book “Thao Lam” is one woman’s personal memoir (set up in a kid-friendly picture book) in regards to how to spell her name and about her favorite Vietnamese food.
What this book teaches is compassion and understanding, which is perfect for children ages 4-8.

THAO by Thao Lam is a visually simplistic and wholly original picture book that shares the author's experience of growing up with a Vietnamese name that was unfamiliar to her peers and, as a result, was repeatedly mispronounced and even mocked. As a consequence, Thao often felt different, and struggled to fully embrace her own unique identity.

This is a deeply personal story, but one that will surely resonate with anyone who has struggled to find a balance between inclusion and maintaining cultural identity. Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Owlkids Books for an ARC.

Can a children's book ever be too short? or not enough words? If so, this book fits the bill. I read the book aloud to two of my nieces (2, and 5), and they wanted to learn more about Thao, also, who was Jennifer.

They thought the photos of Thao in the book were great, and how the classmates were more of illustrated paper cutouts, making Thao all the more special. Coming from an ethnically diverse area, they weren't sure why people had trouble pronouncing Thao's name. They understood that maybe spelling it could be an issue (Tail?), especially as they were young.

Overall we though the book was fun. It opened up conversations about names. How even though my nieces, have "American"/"English" names, not everyone does. That someday they will have classmates that grew up in other areas, with names that are not common in the United States, or not common in our part of the United States. How even with a common name, people will spell names differently. Bonus: they too enjoy eating rolls, even though we call them nime or spring rolls.

I also have a first name that's common in Asia but not in the US, and I could totally relate to the frustration of the child in the story and the desire to have a name others could pronounce or recognize.. Readers of this book will learn what it's like to be the child with an uncommon name and hopefully become more aware of what to do or say. The use of the names and words created a strong visual impact but I wish there were more illustrations in this picture book.

This brief nonfiction picture book shares the author's story of coming to terms with her Vietnamese name in an American school. The story addresses both blundering mispronunciations and racist name-calling, and shows how she was able to embrace her identity anyway. This book will be encouraging to other children who have culturally different names, or even those whose names are simply hard to pronounce or spell. However, I was expecting a lot more from this, and found it somewhat disappointing.

The collage-style illustrations include actual photographs of the author as a child, and I thought that was cool, but some of the pages just have words drawn out in large letters, and the story is short, simplistic, and ends abruptly. I would have been interested in greater detail, and the author never included a pronunciation guide to her name, at the beginning or the end. I looked her up on an author pronunciation website, and was able to learn how to say her name there (https://www.teachingbooks.net/pronounce.cgi?pid=2784), but many people are not aware that this resource exists, and would have a hard time knowing how to read this aloud correctly to children.

I get that part of the book's message is that it frustrates people to have to explain to others how to say their name, but as long as someone is willing to make a true and earnest effort, they should have the opportunity to figure it out. I'm not sure if the author left out a pronunciation guide on purpose to be subversive, but if so, that will make it more difficult for people to share her story, and makes the book more guilt-inducing than educational for children and adults who have no idea how to pronounce Thao.

This is such a beautiful book! Thao is a gorgeous collage book about the names we call ourselves and the meaning they have. I loved every page of this book— the collage style of pictures creates beautifully colored and written designs that reflect that happiness and creativity of a kid. Thao has been called lots of names, and she begins the book by telling us about how everyone has a hard time pronouncing her name. When she goes but Jennifer, she thinks things will be easier, but a beautiful surprise at the end leads Thao to love her name and what it reflects about her. This is the perfect book for any kid, because nay kid will relate and learn from the kid trying to fit in and and be who they are. The overall message is beautiful and it is a perfect bedtime story for young kids. Each page is beautiful and the many colors make it the perfect read out loud book! I highly recommend Thao.

THAO is a beautiful story about the connection of name and identity. In this child friendly memoir, Thao Lam shares about her childhood journey of feeling othered and learning to feel pride in her name and herself. She shares the issues of mispronunciation and misspelling in a humours way, making it accessible to younger students and English Language Learners with her use of simple text paired with striking mixed media collage images. While this is wonderful read for children who have a name that makes the topic relatable, it's a vital read for students (and adults) who might not have given much thought to the importance of learning how to pronounce and spell a new friends name properly.

This was so sweet and wholesome — and it hit hard. My name was chosen specifically to be easy on western tongues, and still, my name is often exoticized and twisted to suit others' perceptions on what a brown girl's name should sound like. It's a struggle so many children of color face — and it can be hard to navigate when you feel like the only one.

So many young BIPOC children are going to feel seen in this picture books — accentuated by pretty paper-cut art, typography, and pictures of the author herself — and I think that's just such a lovely thing!

I thought that this was a really fun read!

I had a difficult surname before I got married that was never pronounced or spelt correctly and that was frustrating but i am so glad that it was not my first name!

The book gives an overview of what it was like for Thao, sharing some of the nice, and not so nice names that she was called - which is a great way to bring up this kind of topic with younger children as no one should be called names.

It is 5 stars from me for this one - a fun read about the periods of having an unusual name!

A very cute and simple picture book about the importance of respecting names and cultures, as well as pride in one's name and culture, The book goes through the various names Thao gets called growing up, some as failed attempts to actually pronounce their name, and some to tease their identity like "China girl," "shrimp," and "yellow". Thao's decision to identify as Jennifer to make name pronunciation easier is a common practice amongst racialized and immigrant families to make it easier for their children to thrive in North American society. I hope that when children read this or when adults read it to children, they talk to them about why Thao felt the need to do this? Why doesn't she want to use her given name? And hopefully that will open up conversations about bullying and respecting the given names of our friends and people we meet. The end of the book ends off positively with Thao feeling pride and joy opening her lunch and finding her favourite food.
The reason why I am giving this book 4 stars is because while I liked it, I felt that it ended abruptly. I thought the author would continue to talk about whether they decided to keep using the name Jennifer or, if they wanted to be called Thao the correct way. I did love the illustrations and how they are a mix of real photos of Thao and cartoon/scrapbook-looking characters.

Gorgeous papercut art mixed with actual pictures of the author grace this book about feeling different because of your name. As someone with a normal-adjacent name, I've had enough misspellings and mispronunciations over my life to really feel the pain of the author and her desire to fit in. But ultimately, your name is part of who you are and where you are from, reflecting your parents' and culture's hopes and dreams. And that is something to appreciate.

I love the illustrations and the mix of collage and photography. I wish there was more of this because a lot of pages were just typography. A good message.

THAO is another fantastic picture book by Thao Lam. What a wonderful biographical presentation of the struggles faced by Lam as a young person growing up with a name not common to her peers. Lam's message in THAO is succinct but clear, and she pulls no punches in recounting the childhood taunts she received. The resulting book is one that will help empower children who may feel marginalized by having a "different" name.

Beautiful children's book! I love the cut-paper illustrations and how well they brought meanings to the pages. As a Vietnamese American myself, it was amazing to read about my own experience growing up since I too have an "ethnic" name. This picture book goes beyond just a children's book, it sparks a conversation while uplifting the Asian American narrative.

It is not easy being Thao, indeed :) Simple but beautifully illustrated story of a little girl struggling in a different place, among people who don't get her name right. Very heartwarming.

This is a beautifully crafted book that many students will be able to identify with. I love how the author made it more personal by including actual photographs of herself as a child mixed in with the media. It's a very personal book with a simple, powerful message.

It's a cute picture book. I think the Photo of the kid is real, maybe the author herself. The art in this book is a bit different than other kid's books. This book is about racism, and how kids with different names are teased and made fun of mostly by white kids. This is a good book for kids and for schools.

This book should have been longer. It was ok nothing great. I would have liked more pictures as kids engage with more pictures than words. This book is good if you want kids to be more aware.

A sweet, engaging picture book about the challenges some kids face when their name doesn't align with the Western European names of their fellow classmates. I loved the mixed media illustrations and the book had a gentle, sometimes lightly humorous narrative tone. It can be a mirror for kids experiencing the same thing as the main character, Thao, and a window of empathy for those who might have classmates whose names seem unusual or difficult to pronounce. All names are beautiful.

This book was about a girl who does not have a main stream name. I feel this book would be great for any child who has a name that isn't the norm. I did like the illustrations that went with it. Thao being actual pictures and the rest being drawn. I do wish maybe there was a little more for pictures on each page but all in all it was a nice read.