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Good morning. How are you doing
today? Absolutely fantastic. I got to

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tell you how important this book is
not only to young adults and children,

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but adults as well, because I
wanted to make sure that they didn't tell

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me what your name is because it
can be taken in so many different ways.

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Now I work with a gentleman and
and he calls himself Johan, but

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from his country it should be Johann. So I'm I'm gonna take a guest

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in your name Joanna. Ho Is
that right? So? I mean,

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I mean, I mean, do
you see how I mean how important this

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book is because you're going to teach
us and share in a really good way.

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I mean because look at look at
the illustrator. Is it KAA Lee?

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You're pretty close, man. I
mean that's why this book is so

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important. Yeah, I mean,
so, say, my Name covers six

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different kids and from very different backgrounds. So Kami's Panye, person Une and

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Navajo, Mexican and gay, and
talk about the stories and the beauty and

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meaning behind their names. And I
think it's saying the importance of shaking them

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correctly. Yeah. Because I'm a
wedding DJ and I have to phonetically spell

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out every name, because when they're
coming into that room and I say it

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wrong, They're going to hold onto
that for the rest of their life.

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They're gonna say that DJ what what
a nimble? Well he was bad.

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Where did the idea come from to
put a book like this together? Because

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I can't wait to share it?
Oh, thank you so much. You

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know, it really started when I
was a kid. I used to answer

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the phone, our landline, you
know at the time, and people would

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ask my mom, and her name
is Wandling. She's an immorgrant from Tawan,

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so her name is w A n
l I n g and people would

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say things like thaks a wing ling
or wang long or one time I even

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remember Wendy, and it was just
like pretty horrifying and shocking that people wouldn't

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even try to pronounce it even finically, like the letters they were using were

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all wrong. And and then I
became an educator, and you know,

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I hear some of these stories of
students who had teachers or coaches who wouldn't

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say their names, who gave them
nicknames, and then for me personally,

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like my last name is Ho.
You can imagine the jokes that came when

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I was in middle school and high
school, even when I introduced my part

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friends and teacher. So it was
a process for me to even learn how

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to really love my own names.
And it didn't really happen until I was

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an adult off a teacher. You
know. One of the things that that

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is interesting is that we would rather
get the name wrong and then learn it

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when they when they correct us,
and and that that, I mean,

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that's that's a horrible human habit.
Yeah. I think sometimes we feel embarrassed,

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you know, or you're you're afraid
to ask how to pronounce it.

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But I actually think what I would
encourage folks to do is just to ask

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that that actually shows so much care
that you would take the extra second and

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get it takes to ask someone how
to say their name correctly. Yeah,

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so much, because it just shows
that you care. Yeah. Yeah.

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And to show you how much this
book has changed my adult life is that

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I work with a girl and her
name is Shania, and it's it's s

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e a in e A and I
say, and I keep telling her,

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I say, it should be seen
me and she goes, no, it's

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Sean, and she pointed out Sean
Eya Shania and I'm going, oh my

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god, why did it take me
two years to ask such a simple question.

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It's because of this book that is
changing me. Oh that's really beautiful.

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Thank you for sharing that. So
and you know how schools are these

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days and go into the doctor's office. I mean, I would love to

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see this book in every doctor's office. Yeah. I actually had someone comment.

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I was like posting about it on
Instagram and there was someone who was

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like, I want it in every
doctor's office because every time I go to

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the doctor, they butcher my name, and then that makes me wonder about

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they can't even say my name or
they even try, like am I going

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to get good care? So that
was I had never actually thought about the

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doctor's office until I saw that comment. But I think that's a great point.

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The illustrations in this book. Did
the pictures come first or did the

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storyline? Because I mean, everything
comes together and you are so authentic with

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the different cultures. Oh yeah,
you know that. I can't say that

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that comes purely for me. I
did so much interviewing each of these characters,

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and their background comes from a person
or multiple people or places that are

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very dear to me personally. So
I had a lot of help interviewing very

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close friends and co workers as I
was writing the book, so that I

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because I'm writing outside my own experience, in my own background, with the

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exception of the first girl who's Chinese
and that name is my name, I

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wanted to make sure, as you
were saying, that it was truthful and

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authentic and I wasn't doing harm by
trying to represent so many different stories.

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And so some of the names actually
are my dear friends who are like,

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hey, why don't you use my
mom's name, or hey, why don't

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you use my sister's name. This
is what it means, and this you

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know, this is how we introduce
ourselves. And same with the art so

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Quale she is Vietnamese, she lives
in Vietnam, and it's also meant none

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of these are her background. And
so it was so much research and so

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many rounds of feedback, which is
unusual. Usually an artist and an author

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don't communicate at all in the process
of making a book. But because we

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had to solicit so much feedback and
so many from so many different people for

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all the different backgrounds to make sure
that things were represented the way they should

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be represented. Do you remember where
you were when these words came into play.

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My name is a window to my
world, a door to my destiny,

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a key to unlock the dreams of
my ancestors. That should be a

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mantra at every business on the planet, because saying someone's name is so important

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to them. I was I wrote
this book. It was like winter break

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because I live the vice principal and
a high school for many years, and

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I was on my winter break.
So I have three time and it's a

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story that I had been working on
for some time that I put away and

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I remember exactly what I was seeing. So I was sitting on my couch

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and I just like sat there the
whole day. Literally I didn't really accept,

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you know, for you to eat
a little bit, and I was

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just writing and then from there,
you know, revising, et cetera.

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But the book, this book actually
came to me, uh drill, because

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we quickly over the course of a
couple of days as I was really really

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working through it. Then after that
was mocked and not the round, the

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feedback of making it better and even
a pronunciation guide in the back, which

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which is just so fascinating, and
I didn't want to go back there at

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all when I first started the book, because I didn't want it was almost

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like cheating on a test, you
know, where they always had the answers

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in the back. I wanted to
make sure I could get something right first.

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The kid, I'm like, let
me kick in the rock and I'm

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supposed to do because this is too
hard now with this book out now that

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but you're a writer and you're a
very creative mind. I realize that we're

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promoting this book right now, say
my name, But as a creative person,

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you've always got to be working on
something. What is it or can

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you even talk about it? Yeah? I have several books coming out,

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So this one is out today.
I have books Another one out in October.

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It's called On the Tip of the
Wave. It's the story of Chinese

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artists at this hightway ways work around
the refugee crisis. And then next are

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of three so just in the spring, there's the third Ice book. It's

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called The Eyes That Read the World
Wonders and it's about a Korean adoptee who

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is adopted into a white family.
And then We Who Produced Pearls is out

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in April, and that one is
really an anthem for Asian America. So

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those are all picture books. I'm
working on novels still, but those are

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not. Hopefully those would be in
a few years. Yeah. See,

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and even picture books, they inspire
young adults and even you know, elementary

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school students to become writers. I
mean, if it wasn't for my second

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grade teacher, I would not be
a writer. She believed in me.

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And it's and that's what I love
about books like this. I love that

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so much, and I love that
you have a teacher story. I feel

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like so many of us do.
Teachers make such a huge impact for both

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good and harm, and my hope
is that we can all learn to be

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the ones that are doing exactly what
your second grade teacher did, you know,

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believe in students and see them from
who they do. They are.

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Wow. So where can people go
to find out more about you and your

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books because I want them to feel
your love, because I mean, you're

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you're such a giving person. Thank
you so much. They can go to

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my website it's Joanna Hole right they
O A N N A H O W

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R I T E S dot com
and also on you know, social media

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Instagram to talk those things under the
same, so Joanna Whoe. It's pretty

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much everywhere. Please come back to
the show anytime in the future. The

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door is always going to be open
for you. Oh, thank you so

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much for having me with such an
honor. Will you'd be brilliant today?

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Okay, okay, you too,