[Saturday Reads] The Permutations, Evolutions, and Redefinitions of a Girl’s Name

SaturdayReads

Myra here.

Every Saturday we hope to share with you our thoughts on reading and books. We thought that it would be good practice to reflect on our reading lives and our thoughts about reading in general. While on occasion, we would feature a few books in keeping with this, there would be a few posts where we will just write about our thoughts on read-alouds, libraries, reading journals, upcoming literary conferences, books that we are excited about, and just book love miscellany in general.

I found this picturebook by accident at the library, while looking for potentially relevant titles given our current reading theme. I was especially pleased to note that the author-illustrator is from Vienna, Austria – marking this as my 25th country for the #WomenReadWomen2019 reading challenge. Not bad! I have now reached my goal, and excited to see how many more authors from around the world I manage to read by end of the year.

A Daisy Is A Daisy Is A Daisy (Except When It’s A Girl’s Name)

Written and Illustrated by Linda Wolfsgruber
Published by Groundwood Books (2011)
ISBN: 1554980992 (ISBN13: 9781554980994). Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

Buy A Daisy Is A Daisy Is A Daisy (Except When It’s A Girl’s Name) on Amazon | Book Depository

The jacketflap of the book indicates that the book is about the names of girls from different parts of the world that have been inspired – unwittingly or deliberately – by gorgeous flowers. Thus, each page contains a surreal image of a seeming hybrid of girl and flower, the etymology of the name, and how it is used in various countries.

While there were others on Goodreads who seemed to find the images a tad too bizarre, I reveled in its strangenesses and its celebration of various forms of girlhood.

I enjoyed how every image seemed to be a reinvention of a girl sculpted seamlessly into the flower that the girl’s name is supposed to signify.

Evidently, this book is not for everyone. However, in the event that you don’t balk at the bizarre and the beautiful, and enjoy flowers and discovering meanings behind names – this may be to your liking.