First Line Friday: September 22

First Line Friday

Grab your book!

Flip to the first page.

Type the first few sentences.

Here is my book! Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks

Most people in America cannot pronounce my name.

On the first day at my new school, my teacher, Mrs. Beam, is brave enough to try.

"Sur-yan-yay-nay," she says, her eyebrows twitching as she attempts to sound it out.

"Sur-ee-ah-neh-RI-ya-nan," I say slowly.

She tries again, but it is no better.

"I'm going to have to work on that," she says with a laugh.

I laugh too.

Suryanarayanan is my surname. My first name is Ravi. It's pronounced rah-VEE, with a soft rah and a strong VEE. In Sanskrit, it means "the sun." In America, people call me RAH-vee, with the stress on the first syllable. That doesn't mean anything.