Eyes that Kiss in the Corners

Becoming aware of how we look can be a joyful experience, but it can also make us feel uneasy or self-critical. In this attractive and timely picturebook, a young Chinese American girl reflects on her appearance in a loving and accepting way, and shows us that she respects herself for who she is.

‘Some people have eyes like sapphire lagoons with lashes like lace trim on ballgowns, sweeping their cheeks as they twirl. Big eyes, long lashes,’ says our narrator, waiting in the hallway as her friends arrive. The page turns, and for the first time, we can see her face. ‘Not me,’ she says, and it’s true: her eyes are different. They ‘kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea,’ but it’s obvious from both text and image that she feels completely comfortable about this fact.

In the pages that follow, we’re introduced to three generations of her beloved family – mother, grandmother and little sister Mei-Mei, whose eyes look just like our narrator’s, and whose actions and expressions show just how much they love her.

‘When Mama tucks me in at night, her eyes tell me that I’m a miracle,’ says our narrator, and although her Amah’s eyes don’t work the way they used to, ‘she sees all the way into my heart and can even read my mind.’

Amah’s eyes are full of stories, which ‘whirl in their oolong pools’ across the pages of this beautiful book, bringing ancient Chinese tales to life, and passing them on to future generations. On one spread sits Guanyin on a lotus with the Monkey King, and on another, a warrior speeds through the clouds on an impossibly agile horse. Eyes can carry ‘tales of the past and hope for the future,’ says our narrator. ‘They are Mama and Amah and Mei-Mei. They are me, And they’re beautiful.’

In Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, debut author Joanna Ho set out to write a picturebook that would counter messages around ‘impossibly narrow’ Western standards of beauty, and celebrate ‘not only the physical beauty of Asian eyes, but also the power we have to create change in the world’. After years writing and revising her lyrical text, it has been published with illustrations in warm earth-tones that will be popular with young readers, and has clearly hit a spot. More than 8,000 print copies were sold in the first week of publication, and reader reviews have praised its empowering message.

Children do need to see themselves reflected positively in books, and reading about people who don’t resemble them (or live very different lives) is also important. In these respects, Eyes that Kiss in the Corners succeeds in celebrating differences. However, while these girls are visibly diverse, their beauty seems to channel a ‘Disney-princess’ aesthetic, which delivers attractive spreads but feels unattainable, and could undermine the fundamental messages in this book.

You might also want to consider children who don’t physically resemble other members of their families (including those who are adopted or fostered), who could find the intensity of the sentiments in this book unsettling.