Skin Again

I was pleasantly surprised to find out bell hooks has a children's book. I had encountered her work in my previous graduate program, and was curious to see how her philosophies and ideologies translated into children's literature. The answer: pretty darn well. I really liked this book, due to the art and the simplistic but poetic writing. The writing is simple enough, and done in a very clear font, so it is easy to read. A line reads "some true to life // and others all // fun and fantasy, // all the way I imagine me". It is a simple line, but shows so much--it is important to acknowledge that you are more than one form, that you can view yourself as you please.
The art ties nicely into hooks' writing: it has a sort of fantastical magic show more quilt look to it. The paint strokes look vaguely like they could have been fingerpainted (not in a bad way), but in a way that definitely draws you into the book. The overall message ties into hooks' adult work: love yourself and how you see yourself. It does not matter if your view is "real", but that you are proud of yourself. This is shown especially through the lines of the book, but the art can be seen as a celebration of imagination of self as well. show less

I liked this book for several reasons. Firstly, I liked the use of specific language to emphasize the main message of the story. For example, the repetition of the phrase “the skin I’m in is just a covering” made it difficult to forget the message that a person’s skin color does not explain who they are or their personality. Secondly, I believe that the illustrations helped to portray the overall mood of the book. For example, the multiple pictures of different colored hands shaking other hands portrayed people of different skin colors accepting and getting to know each other. The big idea of this book is that a person’s appearance does not give you any insight into who they are as a person.

The big idea of this story is that no matter what color someone’s skin is underneath everyone is the same. People need to look past the color of someone’s skin when getting to know a person. I believe this book is a perfect example of showing younger students that it is important not to judge a person based on their outside looks but to get to know them on a personal level before forming their opinions on someone. Raschka uses people, snakes, and onions in the illustration to show children that everything has layers and you need to look under their layers to find the true person inside.

Though the message of this poem was a great one, I didn’t particularly like it. The overall message is that the skin your in does not define you as a person and others must get to know you personally before they understand you. However, I felt that the placement of the phrases in the book was very odd, sometimes with only 4 words on the page that do not flow well being separated from the rest of the line. I felt the flow was rather choppy and not smooth and natural, which is frustrating to me as a reader. I also did not like how the illustrations sometimes buried the text, especially on the last page; with hard to read font color against vivid multicolored pictures that were so busy it was hard to understand. I would still read the show more poem again, but it could have been better executed. show less

Skin Again is an entire book of a single, touching poem. Since it was one single poem over an entire book, it really kept my attention. Each page contained a single line, which creates suspense as the reader becomes eager to turn to the next page. Skin Again also kept my attention due to the repetitive language. Many lines such as "The Skin I'm in..." is repeated which shows the importance of this line, and also keeps structure and a nice flow of the poem. This poem expresses such a deep issue in such a strong way. The poem states that skin is just a covering but to society as a whole, it is supposed to tell your whole life story. I found the main message is to look pass people's appearance and get to know them for who they really are, show more not who society tells you they are because of their skin color. The poem ends by telling the reader "If you want to know who I am, you have to come inside." show less

I enjoyed this poetry book for two main reasons. First of all the author's, Bell Hooks, use of language with an emphasis on a specific repeated phrase, helped create a patterned flow within the book. The author continuously repeated the phrase, "this skin I'm in is just a covering... look inside" to help structure the poetry and successfully gave the book a strong, readable quality. I also enjoyed the use of illustrations in this book to help convey meaning. For example, there were many images that showed different skin colors of people either isolated on different pages, or coming together like the black and white clasped hands, to show the different ideas the author was discussing in the poetry. The different aspects of this book show more helped portray the main idea of not judging a book by its cover and getting to know what inside, because that is what really matters. show less

In my opinion, this is a fantastic book for young children to read. I actually plan on ordering this book, so that I can have it in my future classrooms. Race/culture is still a lightning rod in our country, with some people refusing to look at people for who they’re instead of what they look like. This book does a fantastic job of presenting this topic in a light, but meaningful way to share a powerful message. One of the main reasons I enjoyed this book, was because of the characters. The author and illustrator represented many different races/cultures in all of their characters to promote equality. Another reason for this being a great book was the plot. The plot was well paced and like I said above, touched on a delicate subject show more in a light, but powerful way. The third reason is that the book really allows for people/students to open up and think about this issue of racism. However, it does it in a way that doesn’t point fingers or make anyone feel uncomfortable. The main message that I took away from this book is that skin is just a small part of who we’re as people and that you want to get to know someone on the inside before making a judgment about them. show less