Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen

Gr 5 Up–Robinson turns the lens on himself in this moving memoir of his life with a visual anomaly called strabismus. The book is an outgrowth of a short film that Robinson made after studying at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, which was picked up and presented by the Opinion desk of the New York Times in 2021. After years of living with the condition and trying to explain it or help others see past it, Robinson settles on the term “whale eyes” to describe the misalignment of his eyes: “We love looking at whales. And yet none of us have ever questioned the fact that we can look into only one of their eyes at a time.” Robinson effectively uses second-person narration and carefully plotted and illustrated pages to take readers through the experience of trying to identify letters, track strings of them across the page, and decode their meaning. He puts readers in the position of sitting through dreaded silent-reading time in elementary school, getting the “wrong” answers every time on vision tests, and stepping up to the T-ball plate, only to strike out. He credits his mother’s innovation and persistence in helping him succeed in school and also advances in technology (like digital audiobooks and screen highlighting tools) that make texts more accessible. The last third of the book is focused on Robinson’s career using film to tell stories that will “get people to care” about issues or lives they may not know anything about, or even find off-putting at first glance. With Rea’s affecting and mesmerizing line drawings, this is an important book for all readers.