stephb413 's review for:

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho

4.0

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Short personal story: I lived in South Korea for several years a little more than a decade ago. My Korean coworker had two absolutely beautiful, joyful little girls. I wanted to buy them dolls that resembled them, but after searching and searching across Seoul I could only find white, blond hair, blue-eyed dolls. I was shocked and saddened to find that these beautiful children couldn't have dolls that looked like them. Happy-ish ending is while visiting the US I bought two dolls with "eyes kissing in the corners" and brought them back as gifts. Not so happy-ish ending is that at the time, the two- and four-year-old didn't really seem to like "those" dolls, but I hope in time they did. Long story short, representation matters, differences should be celebrated, and the strength of our mothers and grandmothers should be honored. This story tells children that "eyes kissing in the corners" are strong and beautiful through meaningful text and colorful illustrations. I am so glad that children can hear that more so than in the past.