Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho

 

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho,

illustrated by Dung Ho

HarperCollins/Harper, 2021, 40 pages

When this story begins, readers only see the back of the young narrator as she begin talking about the eyes of her friends: "eyes like sapphire lagoons/ with lashes like lace trim on ballgowns,/ sweeping their cheeks as they twirl./ Big eyes, long lashes." Turn the page and readers meet the narrator, a young Asian American girl. Is she envious of her friends big eyes? Not at all, because she has eyes "that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea." Just like her mother's eyes.

 

The unnamed narrator tells readers that her mother's eyes laugh and sparkle like starlight when she happy, and show gold flecks at night as she tucks her daughter into bed. And her mother's eyes are just like her Amah's. Amah's eyes, she says, may not be a good as they once were, but "she can see all the way into my heart and can even read my mind." And her Amah's eyes are filled with so many wonderful stories from Asian mythology.

Little sister Mei-Mei's eyes also kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea just like her sister's, her mother's and her Amad's eyes. And the way Mei-Mei gazes up at her older sister in such admiration that it makes her feel like she can fly.  

Told in beautiful, descriptive lyrical verse, Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is an ode and a celebration of self, family, heritage and culture connect these three generations to each other in such a deep and poignant way.  

Complimenting the text are bold, brightly colored digitally created illustrations. The artist, Dung Ho, has incorporated traditional Asian motifs like peonies, dragons, fish, phoenix's, and yes, that sure looks like Mulan in the top center of the above page.

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is such a beautiful story of family and female empowerment. It was a true pleasure to read a book about a young girl's intact self-esteem and total self-acceptance who also feels such joy regarding who she is. I am very excited to read this to my young readers when we meet again. And I think this book couldn't come at a more opportune time as a way of countering the negative "slanty-eye" stereotyping that seems to be on the rise right now.

If you are looking to share a book with a positive message about self-acceptance, you can't go wrong with Eyes that Kiss in the Corners. And don't forget to download the Activity Guide courtesy of the publisher.

Meet the Author:

Joanna Ho is passionate about equity in books and education. The daughter of immigrants from Taiwan and China, she has been an English teacher, a dean, and a teacher professional development mastermind. She is currently the vice principal of a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. And mom to two energetic kids. Homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids make Joanna's eyes crinkle into crescent moons. Learn more at www.joannahowrites.com and follow her on social media @JoannaHoWrites.

Meet the Illustrator:

Dung Ho was born and raised in Hue Imperial City, Vietnam, where she studied graphic design at the Hue Arts University. She finds inspiration in nature - the beauty of plants, flowers, and leaves. She also loves to draw interesting characters with unique personalities. Now she lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where she continues to learn and develop her art, something she loves doing. When she's not drawing, she loves spending time cooking (eating), watching movies, and tending her plants.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+

This book was gratefully received from Keely Platt at Spark Point Studio

MMGM: Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang

 

Welcome to 1984. Lauren Horowitz and Tara Buchanan have always been best friends and lucky enough to be in the same class. But now they are in middle school and the only period they share is lunch. So Tara gets the idea that they should both audition for the school musical Shake It Up, set in 1958 and involving lots of hula-hooping. And although they both want to play the part of lead, Brenda Sue Parker, it goes to Tara. Why? Because Tara is the picture of an all-American girl - reddish brown hair, blue eye, milky skin and a dusting of freckles across her nose. And despite giving a better audition than Tara, Lauren, who is Jewish and Chinese, has dark eyes, dark straight hair and no freckles, ends up in the ensemble. Or as Mrs. Tyndall, the play's director, explains it: "When people see [Tara], they won't have a hard time imagining she's an all american girl from Pleasant Valley." (pg 24)

After breaking the news to her family - dad, mom, brother David, and her two grandmothers - Lauren discovers what she thinks is a kindred soul on the radio, and decides to call the DJ, Nashville Nick, to find out who the singer is. When he tells her it's Patsy Cline, Lauren immediately thinks Klein, believing her to be a Jewish country western singer whose music about loneliness and longing she instantly connects to. 

As rehearsals get underway, Lauren and Tara begin to drift away from each other. And as Lauren spends more time sitting with the other kids in the ensemble and getting to know them, she finds herself liking their company. Lauren is even doing things separate and apart from Tara. Like the singing gig her grandmother got for her at the mall and starting a button business with her button-making machine. 

But when her mother announces that she has decided to go to law school, Lauren learns one of the reasons motivating her is the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, who was beaten to death by auto workers mistakenly believing he was Japanese and blaming him for the loss of auto jobs in Detroit. Vincent Chin becomes "like a ghost in my head, darting in and out." (pg.106) Thinking about Vincent together with the realization that she is not Mrs. Tyndall's idea of an all-American girl, causes Lauren to question just the idea of what, exactly, is an all-American. And she promptly discovers that she can no sing because it no longer makes her happy. 

Will Lauren ever be able to find her voice again and speak out about the insults and the macro- and microaggressions she experiences, even from her so-called best friend Tara?

Let me begin by saying that this is a sequel to This Is Not A Test a story that focuses on Lauren's brother David and which I did not read (but which is now on my TBR list), so I can say unequivocally that Not Your All-American Girl is a great stand alone novel. 

I was in college when this story takes place so I really enjoyed all the cultural references and details about daily life at the time (including the allusion to the very popular Jane Fonda workout video and leg warmers), and I am also a big Patsy Cline fan. Interestingly, I haven't watched Pretty in Pink since the 1980s and had completely forgotten about the racist references to Long Duk Dong. I can't blame Lauren for her reaction to the kid making fun of her after the movie. 

I liked that Lauren had the support of her family no matter what, especially her trivia-loving brother. Both grandmothers, one Jewish, one Chinese, were very competitive where Lauren was concerned, and they both offered lots of good humor throughout the story, which it sometimes needed. I am glad the story didn't focus on what was happening on the stage as much as behind the scenes where the real and more important action was taking place. Interestingly, for all this is a story about being seen for who you are, Mrs. Tyndall never really came together in my mind, but her preconceived notions of what an all-American looks like certainly did.  

Not Your All-American Girl is an serious exploration of one girl's awakening regarding friendship, race, and identity with some fun subplots readers will definitely find amusing. 

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an ARC received from the publisher, Scholastic

If you would like to know more about Vincent Chin, history.com offers a succinct article about it HERE

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle.

The Year of the Rat written and illustrated by Grace Lin

The Year of the Rat has arrived and the Lin family, Pacy, her mom and dad, older sister Lissy and young sister KiKi are celebrating with the Ling family - Mr. and Mrs. Ling, Pacy's best friend Melody, and her two brothers. The Lins and Lings are the only Taiwanese families in New Hartford, NY, where they live.

But when Pacy teases Lissy during dinner, she's told not to say anything rude or bad on the New Year, especially since the Year of the Rat symbolizes changes and new beginnings and you don't want those to be bad. But change is exactly what begins to happen. First, Pacy learns that Melody's dad is being transferred to California and Melody will be moving away. Her dad's company is sending a new family from China to work in NY and live in her house. Pacy and Melody promise to keep in touch, even sending each other books that they've read.

There are still more changes in store for Pacy when favorite older fun-but-still-not-an-adult cousin Clifford announces that he had met a girl when he was working in Taiwan and now they are engaged to be married in the summer.

After Melody leaves and the new Chinese boy shows up at school, Pacy ignores him and the two boys who are always making fun of him and his name - Dun Wei becomes Dumb Way. And even though Dun Wei doesn't speak much English yet, it's clear he understands that he is being made fun of. As far as Pacy is concerned, Dun Wei is the enemy for replacing Melody, and as Lissy explains, he's also 'fresh off the boat' Chinese, meaning someone who has just arrived in the US and who doesn't know how to be American yet.

Hanging out with old friends Becky and Charlotte brings other changes, as well. The remarks they make about Chinese people and how they always want to hook her up to Dun Wei when they talk about boyfriends because they are the only Chinese students in the school really begin to bother Pacy. Why don't they ever think to hook her up to Steve Mercer? After all, that's the boy Pacy is crushing on and they know it.

Then, Pacy, who had decided to be an author and illustrator of books as an adult, learns about the "cold door" she suddenly finds herself questioning her destiny. In Chinese culture, the cold door represents choosing a hard path in life for oneself, similar to the Western idea of the starving artist. Is this a choice she should rethink?

The first half of the Year of the Rat is full of what feels like unwelcome changes, but in the last half of the year, Pacy learns some important lessons about change and destiny that refocus her whole way of looking at things. Umm..., maybe change and new beginnings are so bad after all.

Here are some of the things I really liked about The Year of the Rat:

This is the third Pacy Lin novel I've read and I felt like I really knew the fictional Lin family at this point (see The Year of the Dog and Dumpling Days). So in many ways, it was a comfort read.

This year, without Melody by her side and seeing how unkind the other students are to Dun Wei, Pacy becomes much more aware of the kind of microaggressions she's always heard but ignored. But can Pacy find the strength to stand up to them and finally say something to the kids making those? Even before she can say something to others, however, Pacy will have to look at her prejudice regarding 'fresh-off-the-boat' Dun Wei being Chinese and not Taiwanese.

Like the previous Pacy Lin books, The Year of the Rat is full of Chinese culture, traditions, and legends and Grace Lin has woven them into the story seamlessly. Readers will discover why the rat is an admired animal on the Chinese zodiac; they will learn how easy it is to make a mistake when choosing your lunch and still learning English, and they will be introduced to traditional Chinese dishes that made my mouth water. Grace Lin has sprinkled fun black and white line illustrations throughout they book and at the end, she has includes photos of herself, her family, and best friend Alvina, the real life people Pacy's fictional life is based on.

I really enjoyed revisiting Pacy, her family and friends and I'm sure your young readers will enjoy reading about them, as well. And what better time to read The Year of the Rat than in the Year of the Rat.

新年快乐
(Happy New Year to You)

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle. 

Dumpling Days written and illustrated by Grace Lin

It's summertime and Pacy Lin and her younger sisters Ki-Ki, 7 and older sister Lissy, 14, are on their way to Taiwan with their parents for their grandmother's 60th birthday and staying for a whole month.  Even though Taiwan is where their parents are originally from, only Lissy has ever been there to visit but she was too young to remember it.

The Lins arrive in Taiwan right at the beginning of Ghost Month, a time when the ghosts and spirits of people's ancestors visit the realm of the living.  Pacy isn't really in touch with her Taiwanese roots, and finds herself worrying about these ghosts, and, feeling invisible much of the time anyway, becoming one. This introduction to Chinese beliefs is a stark reminder to Pacy that even though she has always felt different from everyone else at home in upstate New York because she is Asian, now in Taiwan, where she may look just like everyone else, she doesn't know much about Chinese culture, and can't speak the language or understand social cues.  One thing she has no trouble understanding, though, is the disapproving look on the faces of the Taiwanese people who try to speak Chinese with her.

But her relatives are a fun and friendly bunch, and the food, especially the dumplings, is spectacular. And there is sightseeing to do, and things to learn.  When Pacy finds out that her mother has signed her up for a painting class, she isn't very happy until she sees the tubes of color paint she needs.  But, the class is in Chinese painting, which means it is done differently than what she is accustomed to, from the way she must hold the paintbrush to never erasing her mistakes to painting the same bamboo over and over again.  It frustrates Pacy, who keeps waiting for her art talent to show up and, to make matters worse, the girl next to her, competitive Audrey Chiang, keeps shooting her disapproving, condescending looks that at first shake Pacy's confidence somewhat.

As the Lin family experiences Taiwan, plus a few days in Taichung, Pacy (and the reader) learns all about her family as well as Taiwanese history, customs, culture, and traditions.  Dumpling Day is an episodic novel, describing the different experiences Pacy has on her own journey to self-discover and acceptance.  Lin has masterfully worked in so much information without making it sound too teachy about it.  Occasionally, there are some short interesting culturally historical folktales or family stories set off from Pacy's narrative that add more depth to the story, such as the Thanking the Emperor, the Story of Dumpling Soup, and Grandma Breaks Tradition .

For the most part, however, Pacy's adventures are the day-to-day kind, things such as the fortune tellers at the market, using the squat toilet, eating chicken feet by mistake, and so much more.  These were the things that made this a particularly enjoyable book to read.  Many of Pacy's adventures are similar to my Kiddo's when she went to China for a few years, particularly the food.  I have email after email telling me how wonderful Chinese food is, with dumplings being the favorite.

I should say that I have not read the previous two Pacy novels, The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat, but I feel like Dumpling Days is really a stand alone novel.  And I did choose it intentionally because I felt it expresses the idea behind Asian Pacific American Heritage Month perfectly.

Besides that, Dumpling Days is one of the best novels I've read about what it is like to grow up in a family that is multicultural, plus it is also an engaging story that will easily appeal to most young readers.  Lin has included simple line drawings throughout the novel that also reflect Pacy's experience (after all, how many of middle graders know what a squat toilet looks like).

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

The Year of the Fortune Cookie by Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Patrice Barton

This is the third book in the Anna Wang series by Andrea Cheng.  In the first book, The Year of the Book, Anna was in 4th grade and her best friend Laura now has different BFFs.  Feeling like an outsider, Anna loses herself in books, but it is also the year that she begins to develop empathy for other people, including Laura.  And Anna finds a new best friend in Camille, another Chinese girl.

In The Year of the Baby, Anna's parents have adopted a new baby sister from China, but Kaylee, an otherwise happy baby, isn't eating.  So 5th grade friends Anna, Camille and Laura develop a science project that they hope will entice baby Kaylee to eat more.

Now, in The Year of the Fortune Cookie, Anna has moved on to 6th grade and middle school.  It looks like Anna and Camille are the only Chinese students there, until Anna meets Andee when she signs up for an after school club.

In English, the teacher Mrs. Smith is teaching the kids how to write a proper paragraph and coordinates her lesson with the social studies topic of Who Am I?  This gets Anna to thinking a lot about who she is and about who baby sister Kaylee is.

Anna and her mother are invited by her 5th grade teacher Ms. Sylvester to accompany her and her husband to Beijing, China as they adopt they own baby girl.  When it turns out that Mrs. Wang isn't able to make the trip, it's decided that Anna would go with the Sylvesters anyway.  In order to miss two weeks of school in December, however, Anna needs the signature of all her teachers.

Her English teacher is reluctant to sign and instead hands her back a paper Anna had written about what makes her who she is with suggestions for a rewrite.  Eventually Anna hands in a satisfactory paper and gets permission to go to China.  It is Anna's hope that going there will give her a better understanding of who she is.

At the same time, the students in Anna's after school group decide to bake and sell fortune cookies to raise money to give to the Lucky Family Orphanage that Kaylee and the Sylvester's new baby were adopted from.  They also knit hats for the babies still there.  It's Anna wish to talk to the women who cared for her sister, but the prospects of that don't look very good.  Then, just when Anna thinks she will never to see the orphanage, she is pleasantly surprised.

This is a gentle story with lots happening, but with none of the dramatics usually associated with middle school novels.  The action may happen in middle school, but this is a better book for kids who are not there quite yet, making it a nice introduction to this time for readers.  Anna frets about all the usual things that going to a new school brings up - friends, work, being different, being accepted, but the main theme of identity and what makes us who we are is really the stuff of this book and of middle school.

Adult readers may wonder why the Sylvesters take Anna with them to Beijing, but younger readers won't be bothered by it.  I didn't dwell on the time Anna spent in Beijing, even though it takes up a fair amount of space, mainly because there is so much to it.  I admired Anna tenacity there when it looks like the woman from the orphanage is trying to get out of taking her to visit, but Anna was determined to do this for her sister.

The whimsical black and white illustrations by Patrice Barton add much to this heartwarming story and will provide continuity to readers who will recognize them from The Year of the Baby, which Barton also did.

The character of Anna grows a lot in this book and I wonder if Cheng is going to bring her from chapter book to middle grade novel for her fans who are growing up as well.  I think it is a nice book for kids around 9 or 10 who are soon facing middle school.

Anna is still learning Chinese and there is a pronunciation guide and character list at the beginning of the book of all the words and phrases used in The Year of the Fortune Cookie.  And even though we learn that fortune cookies don't exist in China, there is a recipe at the back of the book for making them.

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was borrowed from a friend

The Thing about Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

The Miyamoto family has had a year of bad luck, 12 year old Summer tells the reader, a year without Kouun.  Summer came down with near fatal malaria after being bitten by a mosquito, her parents have had to leave Kansas to care for her great grandparents in Japan and now she and younger brother Jaz, 10, have to go on the wheat harvest with their grandparents, Jiichan and Obaachan.

Working as "wheaties" to get money to pay the mortgage, grandfather Jiichan drives a combine and grandmother Obaachan cooks for all the "wheaties" with help from Summer.  Narrated from Summer's point of view, the novel is more thought driven than plot driven.  Summer reflects on mosquitoes, about which she is completely obsessed, even keeping a book of her mosquito drawings and slathering herself in DEET.

She worries about Jaz's inability to make friends, even while she thinks about how annoying he can be.  Jaz has been diagnosed with ADHD and OCD.  His obsession of the moment is LEGOS and as Summer points out: who would Jaz be without his obsessions?

It seems that Obaachan is always mad at Summer, and Summer is always annoyed with her grandmother.  Yet, she willingly helps Obaachan, even taking over the cooking when her grandmother's back pain gets unbearable.  There are two Obaachans, Summer decides, a good one and a bad one.  The good Obaachan stayed by her bedside when Summer was so sick with malaria, the bad just finds continuous fault with everything she does.  Yes, Summer devotes quite a bit of space to this generational tension.

And bad luck continues when Summer's first kiss turns out to be a bust and the guy a jerk.

A year without luck is hard.  But this is Summer's coming of age summer, so when a crisis comes up, she realizes that it is up to her to finally help change the families luck, to get a little Kouun back.  Is she up to the challenge?  And it is a big one.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the wheat harvest is all about, or what a combine is, she devotes quite a bit of space to explaining all about, the vehicles used and how it is done, complete with drawings.  Sound dull?  Amazingly, it isn't.

The Thing About Luck is a very agreeable novel and homage to the migrant workers that harvest our wheat.  Kadohata's characters are wonderfully strong, and the dynamic between Summer and her grandmother is funny, poignant, snarky and completely realistic.  Summer's obsession with mosquitoes after receiving a malaria carrying bite from one the previous year is just spot on behavior for a somewhat hypocondrical a 12 year old.  But Summer is also a hard worker who understands that her elderly grandparents may not be about to do the kind of hard manual labor that harvesting requires and that life could easily change for the worst for the Miyamoto family.

One of the things I found most interesting in The Thing about Luck is that no one really thinks about their Japanese identity.   Jiichan, Obaachan and Summer all seem to just accept their life in America and Japanese culture, traditions don't seem to factor into it very much.  On the other hand, the Miyamotos are not stereotypical either.

I found this to be a excellent, well written novel.  And now, The Thing about Luck is the 2013 National Book Award winner.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL