My Name is Sangoel
Written by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed; Illustrated by Catherine Stock

Sangoel is a refugee. Leaving behind his homeland of Sudan, where his father died in the war, he has little to call his own other than his name, a Dinka name handed down proudly from his father and grandfather before him. When Sangoel and his mother and sister arrive in the United States, everything seems very strange and unlike home. In this busy, noisy place, with its escalators and television sets and traffic and snow, Sangoel quietly endures the fact that no one is able to pronounce his name. Lonely and homesick, he finally comes up with an ingenious solution to this problem, and in the process he at last begins to feel at home.

Biographical Sketches:
Karen Lynn Williams was born in Connecticut, and received her Master’s degree in deaf education. She has lived in Africa and in Haiti. Karen had an early dream to be one of the youngest published authors, starting a writing club at ten. However, Karen’s published works came later in life, after extensive travels and family experience. Karen’s ability to draw from personal experience and adapt into writing forms for all ages and interests expresses her true gift.

Khadra Mohammed is a children’s book author and executive director of the Pittsburgh Refugee Center a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for refugees all over the world. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Her book Four Feet Two Sandals was a Cybils’ book finalist. She has received numerous awards for her work with refugees.
While award-winning illustrator Catherine Stock is known for creating tender, fanciful, boldly colored, and factually accurate water color and pastel illustrations for the works of a roster of highly acclaimed authors, she has also authored and illustrated a number of her own award-winning picture books. In her own titles, which include Emma’s Dragon Hunt, Gugu’s House, and A Spree in Paree, Stock takes English-speaking readers on journeys to places far from home, like China, Europe, and Africa, introducing them to the diversity and vastness of the world.

Suggested Activities:
1.  Before reading, ask the students if anyone has ever mispronounced his or her name. Tell them that you will be reading a story about a boy whose name was almost always mispronounced. Show the students Sangoel’s name and have them try to predict how it will be pronounced. Each time his name is mentioned in the text say, “Bleep” or something else instead of his name until the point in the story when Sangoel shows his classmates the shirt he made to help them pronounce his name. Finally, you can reveal his name to the class. After reading, ask students to think of polite ways to ask the pronunciation of someone’s name and how to politely correct the pronunciation of your own name.
2.  Make a list of the ways you might make refugees and other newcomers more welcome in their new home and school.
3.  Look up the country of Sudan. What are some of their customs? What languages do they speak?
4.  It is important to know who you are, where you came from and what your family traditions are. Your name is an important part of who you are. Ask your family how you got your name. Are you named for someone special? What are some other things that make you who you are? Find out the meaning of your name.
5.  Many people who settled the United States came here from all over the world. Some came as immigrants and others came as refugees. Do you know where your family came from? How did they arrive here?
6.  Sangoel thinks of a creative way to show people how to pronounce his name. Can you show how to say your name with pictures? If your name cannot be sounded out with pictures try drawing a picture that you think stands for your name and the person you are.
7.  Sangoel is from Sudan but the refugee camp where he lived before he came to the United States is in Kenya. Many refugees from Sudan had to walk all the way to Kakuma, the refugee camp in Kenya. Find Sudan and Kenya on the map. About how far did Sangoel and his family have to walk to get there? How long do you think it might have taken them? Using a map, identify a place in the U.S. that is the same distance from your town as the camp was from Sangoel’s town in Sudan.

Companion Books:
Levine, Ellen. Henry’s Freedom Box . Scholastic. 2007.
Mc Brier, Page. Beatrice’s Goat. Aladdin. 2004.
Milway, Katie Smith. One Hen. Kids Can Press. 2008.
Winter, Jeanette.  Wangari’s Trees of Peace. Harcourt. 2008.
Woodson, Jacqueline. The Other Side. Putnam. 2001.

Books Written by Karen Lynn Williams:
Circles of Hope, illustrated by Linda Saport. Eerdmans Books. 2005.
Four Feet, Two Sandals, illustrated by Doug Chayka. Eerdmans Books. 2007.

Books Illustrated by Catherine Stock:
Wilson, Sara. The Day We Dance in Underpants. Tricycle Books. 2008.
Whitaker, Suzanne. The Daring Miss Quimby. Holiday House. 2009

Websites:
http://www.karenlynnwilliams.com/index.html :  Author’s website.
http://www.catherinestock.com/books/index.html : Illustrator’s website.
http://pbskids.org/bigapplehistory/immigration/index-flash.html :  Big Apple History: Coming to America.