Summary of the book
The book Eyes That
Kiss in the Corners is
about a little girl who realizes that her eyes are different from her peers,
who appear prominent, with long lashes. The little girls' eyes kiss in the
corner and glow like warm tea, just like the women in her family's eyes, her
momma's and Amah's. When the girl looks into the eyes of her momma and Amah,
the stories of their culture from the past are seen. The girl recognizes her
beauty and feels empowered (Ho, 2021).
Evaluate
Genre/ Illustrations
The illustrations in the book are very vibrant and appear
realistic to the colors used in the Asian culture. The illustrator used every
piece of the pages available to add as much visual detail to the book as
possible. The illustrations give readers a text-to-visual experience when
reading this book. The watercolors used to develop the images make the pictures
stand out. At the beginning of the book, when the girl was describing her
peers' eyes and how different they were, the illustrator did a great job providing
various shapes, colors, and sizes of each person's eyes. The book relays a
positive message to children about self-esteem and displays Asian heritage. The
book's illustrator is Dungo Ho, a Vietnamese artist from Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam (Dayton, 2022). Ho has illustrated several books such as Eyes That
Speak to Stars, Me and Ms. Too, The Come Back, and many others (Dayton, 2022).
Motivational Activities
After reading this book, I would include an activity where the
children draw their own eyes and have pictures of what they see in their
families' eyes, as the girl did to describe their heritage. Set aside time for
students to present their drawings and explain what they see and why they see
it.
While reading this book, I
would ask why the student thinks the girls see the things listed in the book
from her family's eyes. I would also ask how seeing these things makes the girl
feel. At the end of the reading, I would have a class discussion about the
moral teaching in the book and discuss how everyone is different based on their
heritage and cultural background.
Personal comments/ Author background information
References
Dayton, S. (2022, November
27). Eyes that kiss in the corners. Tales in Time.
https://talesintime.com/eyes-that-kiss-in-the-corners-summary-by-joanna-ho/
Dayton, S. (2022, November
27). Eyes that kiss in the corners. Tales in Time.
https://talesintime.com/eyes-that-kiss-in-the-corners-summary-by-joanna-ho/
I had no idea, about this book until I stumbled upon a YouTube video where someone shared it by reading it along with pictures. You made an excellent choice adding this book to your collection of stories. Our son has a condition called nerve hypoplasia, which means he is completely blind without any perception of light. As a result, his eyes sometimes have different appearances. One eye tends to turn while the other remains straight or vice versa. This often draws attention from people when we're out and about. Slowly his classmates are adjusting to the appearance of his eyes. This book is an incredible tool for educating your class. The main character in the story learns life lessons, from the strong women in her life and begins to embrace her own self-worth. Ultimately the book teaches us that diversity is something to be celebrated and fully accepted.
ReplyDeleteEyes that Kiss in the Corners is a terrific fiction book that can be used to educate young children about everyone being different and to accept each other. It shows the children that we all may have different traditions and we could use them to grow. By showing each other's culture they can understand different traditions that make them who they are.
ReplyDeleteThis book is perfect to represent fiction, throughout it uses text-to–visual combined with bright colors. Through the illustrations they see what the main character is seeing or thinking. She gives her description of her own eyes and how she sees them. The illustrations show different eye shapes, they do a wonderful job by combining different shapes and lines to reflect how everyone has different eye shapes.
Some activities that can be used for this book are, complete a worksheet where they can each depict and write about their thoughts at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story. Another activity would be to have them each create a new cover for the book. Here they could express their view of the story and share it with the class.