Setting: America, School
Characters: Unhei, Mother, Mr. Cocotos, Grandmother, Mr. Kim, Joey
Theme: It's alright to be different, Be yourself
This story starts on Unhei's first day of school after she left Korea. Her grandmother gave her a wooden block with her name on it in Korean letters before she left. The kids on the bus can't say her name so they kind of pick on her a little. When she gets to class, she tells them she didn't choose a name yet. Her classmates were confused why she didn't have a name. When she got home that night, she told her mom she wanted an American name, but her mom said being different was good. They went to a Korean store for food and the owner, Mr. Kim, said her name, meaning "grace", was pretty. At home she tried out American names, but she didn't like any of them. The kids in her class gave her a jar with name suggestions in it. A boy named Joey asked what her name was, and she showed him her name stamp. Everyday her name jar got fuller, and one day she got a letter from her grandmother saying that she would always be her Unhei. One Saturday she ran into Joey at the Korean store, and he overheard Mr. Kim say Unhei's name. He repeated it and actually said it the right way. Right after that he left before she could ask him why he was there in the first place. The next school day, the name jar was gone and just one piece of paper was left. Unhei decided she would tell them her real name, and everyone said it and pronounced it correctly. Later Joey came to her house and gave her the name jar. He explained that he wanted her to keep her name so he took the jar. He also said Mr. Kim had given him his own Korean name. Mr. Kim made Joey a wood stamp like Unhei's. His stamp said Chinku in Korean letters. Chinku means "friend."
