Eyes That Kiss in the Corners

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho. This book has won numerous awards including SCBWI Golden Kite Award (2022): Winner in the Picture Book Text category, Golden Poppy Book Award: Winner in the children's category, Nerdy Book Award (2021): Winner, ALSC Notable Children's Books (2022): Selected as a notable book, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award (2022): Highly Commended title. Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is about a little girl who notices her eyes are different from the eyes of her peers. She has eyes that kiss in the corners, not big eyes with long lashes like her peers. As you read the book, the little girl realizes that her eyes are like the eyes of Mama, Amah, Mei-Mei and her heritage.

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is written in a poetic, lyrical form. This story captures the little girl’s feelings about her eyes and describes her eyes using many items found in nature. The author uses repetition throughout the book, you will read “I have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea” repeated throughout the text. In this text, she compares her eyes to warm tea, crescent moons, and the stars. The author uses a lot of imagery and similes to help describe the character’s eyes. For example; ‘sparkle like the stars,’ ‘glow like warm tea,’ and ‘eyes sparkling like starlight.’ This was a really sweet book of self discovery and acceptance. I would highly recommend using this book with 1st-3rd grade students.

There are many students who feel that certain characteristics about them make them stand out in a negative way. Many children just want to fit in and feel like they are the same as their peers, but we all have uniqueness that make us special. I would use this book as a mentor text for students to complete a descriptive writing about their favorite feature of their body or a uniqueness they have. As a class, we would brainstorm ideas; it could be your legs because they help you run fast, your freckles because you are the only one in your class that has freckles, or the color of your hair because it is the same color of your mother’s hair. The student gets to choose their feature they want to describe. The teacher takes an upclose picture of that feature and the student completes a descriptive writing based solely on that feature. It can be so powerful to turn that idea you think makes you different, into something that makes you special.