My Name Has a StoryA first book about the most important word a child knows
Cover of DAVID — The Story of My Name, by David Gough: a small boy holding a book with a heart on it, looking up at his own much taller shadow.

Ages 4–8 · English edition

David

Hebrew beloved

David meets his five letters, hears where his name came from, and finds the love that has been hiding inside its meaning the whole time.

24 pagesFull colour8.5 × 8.5 in paperbackRead-aloud & early reader

Coming soon. This book isn't published yet.

Look inside

Pages from the book.

Page 2: a hand-drawn frame reading This book belongs to and Your name was chosen because, with blank ruled lines and the toy monkey, book, football and paper crown along the bottom.
Page 2The keepsake page. Blank on purpose — someone has to write in it.
Page 3: the name David spelled out on letter tiles, with a drawn tag reading I am David.
Page 3The name arrives in full, and the first claim line follows it.
Page 8: a boy kneeling at an open book with a large red heart rising out of it.
Page 8The meaning, as plainly as a four-year-old can take it.
Page 11: a small boy with a sling stands beside the enormous bare feet of a fallen giant.
Page 11The whole story in one picture, and not a drop of blood in it.

The meaning

David means beloved.

So every time somebody calls a child by that name — across a garden, up a staircase, a hundred times a day for the rest of their life — they are saying a word with love folded inside it. The book takes nine pages to get there, then hands the child the line to say back.

I am loved.

Page 8: a boy kneeling at an open book with a large red heart rising out of it.

The true story

Long ago, stories were told about a brave David.He faced a giant.And the giant fell.David was small,but his courage was not.

Every book in the series earns this page. The rule is a real person, who wanted something, who could have failed — no invented folklore, and sources in the back.

Page 11: a small boy with a sling stands beside the enormous bare feet of a fallen giant.

For grown-ups

Printed at the back of every copy.

David is traditionally understood as a Hebrew-origin name meaning beloved. When reading with a child, pause on the word beloved and tell them one specific thing you love about them.

On claim-line pages, read the line once and invite your child to echo it. On page 21, let your child echo each short line while pointing to the five steps.