{"id":40962,"date":"2024-07-18T20:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T00:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40962"},"modified":"2024-07-18T20:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T00:56:19","slug":"review-of-eyes-that-speak-to-the-stars-by-joanna-ho-illustrated-by-dung-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40962","title":{"rendered":"Review of Eyes that Speak to the Stars, by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Eyes that Speak to the Stars<\/em><\/p>\n

by Joanna Ho
\nillustrated by Dung Ho<\/p>\n

Harper, 2022. 36 pages.
\nReview written April 6, 2022, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Eyes that Speak to the Stars<\/em> is a companion picture book to Eyes that Kiss in the Corners<\/em>, by the same pair of creators, published last year. Both books are lyrical, beautiful, and poetic, and both affirm children of Asian descent and how proud they can be of how they look and who they are. Eyes that Kiss in the Corners<\/em> features an Asian American girl, and this book features an Asian American boy.<\/p>\n

Eyes that Speak to the Stars<\/em> begins as a boy’s Baba notices that he is feeling sad. He explains that his friend drew a picture of their group of friends — and the picture of the boy had slanted eyes and didn’t look like him at all.<\/p>\n

When we got home,
\nBaba stood with me in front of a mirror and said,
\n“Your eyes rise to the skies and speak to the stars.
\nThe comets and constellations
\nshow you their secrets,
\nand your eyes can
\nforesee the future.
\nJust like mine.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The boy’s eyes are just like Baba’s and just like Agong’s. And they are also just like his baby brother Di-Di’s eyes.<\/p>\n

When Di-Di’s dyelids finally flutter open,
\nI orbit his crib,
\nmaking funny faces and singing silly songs
\nuntil his laugh grows so big
\nit spreads up his cheeks
\nand makes his eyes squeeze shut again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And all four have “eyes that rise to the skies and speak to the stars.” They are powerful and visionary<\/p>\n

There’s a lot of lofty symbolism in this book, but the author pulls it off along with the beautiful paintings. This book is about a child celebrating who they are and their own proud heritage. It’s lovely. <\/p>\n

And for someone reading this book whose eyes don’t have the same shape, we’ve got a lovely window into a wonderful loving family.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eyes that Speak to the Stars by Joanna Ho illustrated by Dung Ho Harper, 2022. 36 pages. Review written April 6, 2022, from a library book Starred Review Eyes that Speak to the Stars is a companion picture book to Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, by the same pair of creators, published last year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-picture-book-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44055,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40962\/revisions\/44055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}