The Name She Gave Me
eBook - ePub

The Name She Gave Me

  1. 416 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Name She Gave Me

About this book

A heartbreakingly beautiful novel in verse about adoption, family, friendship, and love in all its many forms, perfect for fans of Robin Benway and Jandy Nelson, from the acclaimed author of Three Things I Know Are True.

Rynn was born with a hole in her heart—literally. Although it was fixed long ago, she still feels an emptiness there when she wonders about her birth family.

As her relationship with her adoptive mother fractures, Rynn finally decides she needs to know more about the rest of her family. Her search starts with a name, the only thing she has from her birth mother, and she quickly learns that she has a younger sister living in foster care in a nearby town. But if Rynn reconnects with her biological sister, it may drive her adoptive family apart for good.

This powerful story uncovers both beautiful and heartbreaking truths and explores how challenging, yet healing, family can be.


One name. Two sisters. A second chance that could cost her everything.


  • Finding Your Birth Family: Armed with a single name—Scheherazade—Rynn begins a search for the mother she’s never known, only to uncover a truth she never expected.
  • A Sister in Foster Care: The stunning discovery that she has a younger sister, Ella, living in a nearby town offers a chance at the connection Rynn has always craved.
  • Complicated Mother-Daughter Relationships: As Rynn grows closer to her past, the already-fractured bond with her adoptive mother threatens to shatter completely, forcing an impossible choice.
  • Heartfelt Coming of Age: A powerful story told in beautiful, accessible verse about identity, what it means to be family, and healing the literal and metaphorical holes in your heart.

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Information

Publisher
HarperCollins
Year
2022
eBook ISBN
9780063157859
Print ISBN
9780063157842

Part One

image

Rynn

Names

My birthmother was twenty
when I was born,
four years older
than I am now,
and she gave me a name.
Scheherazade
(Shuh-hair-ah-zod)
has three e’s,
two a’s
and twelve letters.
Mom and Dad changed my name to
Rynn—
four letters, one repeat,
and no vowels,
unless you count the (sometimes) y.
I don’t love the name
Scheherazade,
but my birthmother
gave it to me.
It’s the only thing
from her
I (don’t) have.

Scheherazade

My lost name is a clue,
like a message in a bottle
washed up on an empty shore.
In an old book,
a girl named Scheherazade
told a king stories
so he wouldn’t kill her.
Night after night,
she stopped her stories
in the middle,
like a soap opera
or a detective series,
and continued them
the next night.
It took 1,001 nights
and 1,000 stories
for the king to fall in love
with her.
Why she would want to marry
a man who killed women
is beyond me.
Or why she’d want
to be with someone
who took 1,001 nights
to figure out he loved her.
I’m wondering if my birthmother
wanted me to know
that in order to survive
without the truth
of who I am
and where I came from,
I would also have to make up stories
to get me through the night.

Holes

I don’t know if I got
my gray eyes,
or my straight brown hair,
from my birthmother.
I don’t even know
her name.
At eighteen,
I can get my original birth certificate,
genetic and medical information.
Until then,
I can only guess
why she gave me up
and why I was born
with so many holes.
A hole in my throat,
A hole in my back,
A hole in my heart.
The hole in my throat,
a cleft palate,
took two surgeries to fix.
Before they closed it
I had to drink thickened milk
or I would choke.
The hole in my back—
a sacral dimple—
is not cute
the way you’d think
when you hear the word
dimple.
It’s a tiny tunnel
on my spine
that ends in darkness.
It goes nowhere
and doesn’t bother
anybody.
They only found
the hole in my heart—
an atrial septal defect—
when I was thirteen
and started being
out of breath.
That makes...

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. Contents
  6. Part One
  7. Part Two
  8. Part Three
  9. Part Four
  10. Part Five
  11. Author’s Note
  12. Acknowledgments
  13. About the Author
  14. Books by Betty Culley
  15. Back Ad
  16. Copyright
  17. About the Publisher