Eyes that Weave the World’s Wonders by Joanna Ho, Liz Kleinrock and illustrated by Dung Ho | Book Review
Credit: HarperCollins Publisher
Eyes that Weave the World’s Wonders by Joanna Ho with Liz Kleinrock and illustrated by Dung Ho
About the Book: From New York Times bestselling Joanna Ho, of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, and award-winning educator Liz Kleinrock comes a powerful companion picture book about adoption and family. A young girl who is a transracial adoptee learns to love her Asian eyes and finds familial connection and meaning through them, even though they look different from her parents’.
Her family bond is deep and their connection is filled with love. She wonders about her birth mom and comes to appreciate both her birth culture and her adopted family's culture, for even though they may seem very different, they are both a part of her, and that is what makes her beautiful. She learns to appreciate the differences in her family and celebrate them.
Review
Much like the co-author, Liz Kleinrock, if you were to ask me the first time I saw myself represented in a book, I would probably say “never.” This illustrated story follows the same style of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners and Eyes that Speak to the Stars and tells the story of a young girl who’s eyes don’t match her family’s because she is a transracial adoptee. Being adopted can be joyous and painful, often at the same time. Much like the young girl admires her family and can see the love they have for her in their eyes, still, a part of her notices that she is different and wonders if someone is out there that has eyes that look like hers.
It is tough to capture the mixed, layered, complex emotions associated with adoption. There is grief for everyone involved, the family that could not keep their child, the family that could not have biological children, and especially the adoptee. How can you capture that all in a picture book for children? Ho and Kleinrock do a great job and showing an imaginative and curiosity of the young girl and the wonder of what was lost. Everyone can take something from a story like this. For non-adoptees, they might be able to understand that adoption comes with grief regardless and is much more complicated than just “being grateful.” While not every adoptee has the exact same experience, I wish this story existed when I was a kid as it would allow a group of children to feel seen.