All the Faces of Me - Laura Alary - ★★.¾

AUTHOR: Laura Alary

ILLUSTRATOR: Salini Perera

GENRE: Children's Picture Book

RATING: 2.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: Has a good premise, but needed some fine-tuning in the execution. Will work better for classroom discussions.

Story Synopsis:

Written in the first person perspective of a little girl, the story tells us of how her Nana has six wooden dolls sitting side by side on her window sill. The five bigger dolls have the same fixed smling expression, but the sixth one, the smallest of the lot, is entirely unpainted. The narrator decides to colour in an expression on the sixth doll, and while doing so, she also draws on the other dolls different expressions. Needless to say, Nana is furious at her dolls being defaced. What happens next?

I do like the intent of the story. The concept of a little girl realising that she is not always smiling, that there are varying moods inside of her, and each of the emotions is an important part of her identity, is excellent. Not everyone is happy all the time, though the world expects them to. This misrepresentation of human emotions is especially worse in these social-media dominated days when everyone shares a multitude of smiling “happy family” photos online, which creates feelings of inadequacy and envy in others who might not be going through a satisfying family phase.

However, the intent needs to be converted into a more refined storyline. A few things felt too rushed, and too much was left unsaid.

I am never a fan of stories that let children get away with inappropriate behaviour. I liked that Nana is clear about how the Matryoshka dolls were *hers* and how her granddaughter should have asked her before sketching those new faces on her beloved dolls. However, after the little one’s explanation about how those varied faces are all parts of her, Nana cools down almost immediately and forgives her granddaughter without any further fuss. The granddaughter doesn’t even offer an apology for damaging her grandma’s personal possessions without permission. This doesn’t sit right by me. Justification isn’t a substitute for reparation, and children ought to be taught how to respect others’ belongings and to apologise when they make a mistake.

The illustrations are decent. I liked the granddaughter’s varying expressions and also the pet Persian cat who is cute and fluffy. But Nana was drawn too white for my liking. (I don’t mean ‘white’ as in her race, but her hair and skin was literally coloured a bright white that hurt my eyes. The little girl is of a different race (I couldn’t figure out whether she was Black or brown), but an explanation for her biracial background is provided in the photos on Nana’s windowsill. This was a nice touch, though the text doesn’t explore the biracial aspect further.

The story is written in simple prose, with not more than 4-5 lines per page. The vocabulary is quite simple, and will work well for ages 5-7.

This might be a good book for classroom discussions as it offers quite a few important topics to talk about. I am not sure if I could recommend it for personal collections.

My thanks to Owlkids Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “All the Faces of Me”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.