Sora's Seashells: A Name Is a Gift to Be Treasured

When Sora's grandmother visits inthe summer, the two spend a lot of time at the beach, searching for seashells, but Sora doesn't understand when Halmoni leaves a particularly nice shell on a bus bench instead of taking it home. In response, Sora starts hiding shells in her pocket and saves them at home. When school starts kindergarten, one of the boys says that her name is weird, saying that it should be Sara. This goes on for weeks, and she doesn't tell her parents until she gets the terrible news that Halmoni has passed away. This unleashes her sadness, and she tells her parents she wishes her name were Sara. Her parents take her to the beach, where they show her a seashell and tell her that her name means "seashell" in Korean. She was named that because her grandmother said that finding a perfect shell is like a gift, and Sora is her parents' greatest gift. At show and tell, Sora relates this stroy to her classmates, and gives each of them a seashell, including the boy who teased her. Her classmates tell her that her name makes more sense now, and Sora has another good memory of her grandmother to help her through her tough times.