Bright Eyes, Brown Skin by Cheryl Willis Hudson

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Bright Eyes, Brown Skin was written by Cheryl Willis Hudson. She is an editorial director of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publishing company that focuses on Black interest books for children and young adults. She and her husband Wade Hudson, founded Just Us Books in 1988 to address the need for more African American children’s books in the market place. In 2003 she was inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of diversity in literature and has served as an parenting expert for Club Mom. She is also a member of PEN America’s Children Book Committee. Hudson lives in New Jersey with her husband and frequent collaborator, Wade Hudson. [1]

Summary

This book tells about four black children who feel good about who they are and how they look enjoy the activities of a typical day at school, happy and brimming with confidence and self-esteem. [2]

Pros

A very beautiful review had made by School Library Journal, they explained this book was a poem extolling the beauty of African-American children forms the basis for the celebration of a positive self-image. Four attractive children engage in typical kindergarten pastimes as the rhyming text rhapsodizes about their dimpled chins, "teeth that glisten," and "very special hair and clothes." Whereas building self-esteem and acknowledging children's charms are commendable goals, they are not enough to build a book upon. Yes, these boys and girls are appealing, but they are so unusually cooperative and cheerful, smiling nonstop throughout the pages of this slim volume, that real live children, with all of the emotions and moods that are a part of being human, may have difficulty relating to them. [3]

According to Publishers Weekly, this was the first book in the Feeling Good series follows four African-American children through a busy day at preschool. A gentle, catchy rhyme meanders through the pages as bright, realistic illustrations show the children playing games, drawing pictures, dancing, and simply enjoying one another company. Though the text is not particularly subtle and the drawings are slightly stiff (on some pages the children look like short adults), the book goes a long way toward achieving its stated goals: to present ``happy children, brimming with confidence and self-esteem, and to celebrate positive images. The need for books that meet these goals.[4]

References

  1. Cheryl Willis Hudson. aalbc.com. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
  2. Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
  3. Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
  4. Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. publishersweekly.com. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.