What’s in a Name? / He aha tō te Ingoa?

Multicultural picture book with Kiwi Indian main character tells the importance of people’s names

What’s in a Name?
He aha tō te Ingoa?

In a school that reflects modern, multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand, pupils from diverse cultures have names that might seem difficult to say – a situation that many children encounter.

Priyanka definitely is worried when she is tasked with reading out the students’ names at the end-of-year assembly. Wanting to pronounce them correctly, she goes around the school yard to find her classmates and learn about their names.

Knowing how important the names are to her friends and their whānau, she practises hard to pronounce Arihia, Xinze, Somachandra, Sean and Tausa’afia – will she be ready for the big day?

Colourfully illustrated by award-winning artist Isobel Joy Te Aho-White and translated by bestselling author Hona Black, this is a book to read and reread at home and in school.

Renisa Viraj Maki
Illustrated by Isobel Joy Te-Aho White
Translated by Hona Black

Kiwi-Indian author Renisa Viraj Maki’s newest book tells a gentle and beautiful story about the mana our names carry.