My Name is María Isabel

Alma Flor Ada

Dec 2009 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

A third grader realizes the importance of her name in this classic story of heritage and self-identity.

For María Isabel Salazar López, the hardest thing about being the new girl in school is that the teacher doesn't call her by her real name. "We already have two Marías in this class," says her teacher. "Why don't we call you Mary instead?"
But María Isabel has been named for her Papá's mother and for Chabela, her beloved Puerto Rican grandmother. Can she find a way to make her teacher see that if she loses her name, she's lost the most important part of herself?

Ratings and reviews

A story of a Puerto Rican immigrant girl and her struggles with stereotypical judgement made by her teacher who assumes that Maria Isabel can go by "Mary Lopez," since there are already two other Maria's in the class.

This is a story about a young girl starting a new school. There are already two Maria’s in her class and her teacher begins to call her Mary, even though Maria doesn’t like it. She was named after family members and she doesn’t want to be called Mary. She doesn’t respond to her newly given name and this causes problems for her in school.

On Maria Isabel's first day of school, her teacher decides to call her Mary, because there are already two Marias in class. She must find a way to fit into her new school and show her teacher the importance of her name: Maria Isabel.

About the author

Alma Flor Ada, an authority on multicultural and bilingual education, is the recipient of the 2012 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and in 2014 she was honored by the Mexican government with the prestigious OHTLI Award. She is the author of numerous award-winning books for young readers, including Dancing Home with Gabriel Zubizarreta, My Name Is María Isabel, Under the Royal Palms (Pura Belpré Medal), Where the Flame Trees Bloom, and The Gold Coin (Christopher Award Medal). She lives in California, and you can visit her at AlmaFlorAda.com.