Summary
In a beautiful story about generation and culture the narrator of the story, a young Asian girl, discusses how her eyes aren’t big, and that her eyes kiss in the corners. The narrator shares about her mother and great grandmothers eyes. How they are all just like hers and they make her feel special. Her younger sister, Mei Mei, has eyes like hers, but makes her feel different from her elders eyes. In this story, you see how the narrator looks up to her elders, and how her sister looks up to her.
Theme(s):
Family, Tradition, Culture
Personal Response
In this story, I enjoyed seeing different generations of this young girl’s family. I appreciated the admiration that the narrator had for her mother and grandmother, and how her younger sister had admiration for her. I think that this story was told beautifully and sent an amazing message about everyone’s individual life experiences, beauty, and point of view. This book connected to me because I understand the special feeling I get when my mom, and my older sister look at me.
Teaching Ideas
When thinking about how I could teach this book, I would teach it with character traits, and or point of view. I think that discussing character traits, from how the narrator views her family will allow students to think deeply about character traits. You also could discuss point of view with students as well, maybe even brainstorming what other characters point of views could sound like.
Recommended Reading Level
Birth-PreK, Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03