© 2024, Megan Brown, licensed under CC BY-NC-N Book Review Ho, Joanna, and Dung Ho. Eyes that Kiss in the Corners. HarperCollins, 2021. Eyes that Kiss: Beauty with Underlying Tension by Dr. Megan Brown A young Taiwanese girl struggles with her perceived differences from the other students at her school. They have “big eyes, long lashes,” which are characteristics that she does not see in the mirror. Instead, she has “eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea.” Eyes that Kiss in the Corners highlights the importance of seeing your unique characteristics as what makes you special and connects you to your family. Written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho, this New York Times and #1 Indie Bound Bestseller is a poignant picture of diversity, both physical and cultural. Joanna Ho is “passionate about equity in books and education,” desiring that all children can see themselves within the pages of the books they read. Ho’s book joins this chorus of recently published books bringing external physical characteristics to the foreground by celebrating the beauty of different eye shapes, specifically those of East Asian readers. Ho’s book follows the girl through her encounters with the women of her family who have similarly shaped eyes. In poetic language, Ho describes her mother (Mama), grandmother (Amah), and little sister’s (Mei-Mei) eyes that “crinkle into crescent moons.” With each description, the book builds so that the characteristics of the women are mirrored in the way the young girl sees herself. There is a lot of repetition of the descriptions to emphasize this building of familial resemblance. Dung Ho, a Vietnamese illustrator, beautifully captures the delicate nature of each character’s personality as well as physical features. Using digital illustrations, her sweeping strokes and soft colors perfectly accentuate the text while bringing additional visual emphasis to the presence of Asian culture communicated in the text. Multigenerational family relationships are celebrated in this text. Each page shares the girl’s experiences with the women in her family. While there are no men in the text, the relationship between all the women shows that celebrating culture involves being with family. Ho specifically shows the significance of the older generation through the girl’s perspective of her Amah. She says that while her eyes “don’t work like they used to…her eyes are filled with so many stories.” Typical for Eastern Asian culture, the older generation is lauded for sharing the narratives of old. The girl finds beauty in the stories of her grandmother—a theme that is reflected in the girl’s own “hope for the future” toward the end of the book. While there are many quality elements of this diverse book, the strong presentation of East Asian culture also brings elements of Buddhism. One overt reference is in the folklore stories shared by Amah.
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