EyeSeeMe Review: Best Books For Black girls

Eyeseeme is a physical book and digital book store that promotes a wide range of Black children books from different ages, flash cards, posters, that are useful for infants to high school.

Little Coconut is 7 ½ months old now, and from an early age, I really want to install: Reading can be fun. We are multi-cultural in this household with nothing to show for! So we’ve been looking for fundamental material to help me expand my baby’s learning.

What I was looking for:

• Books about the continent of Africa, Caribbean, and Native American cultures
• Flash cards in English/Spanish
• Posters that illustrate Melanin people

Being that my baby is beautifully blended of West African, Carib, and South East Native American ethnicities, I wanted her education to reflect her heritage from an early age.

Our families didn’t have the access to implement melanin education and was usually forced to rely on the Government education system to teach our studies. With

Short story Books For Baby’s and Toddlers Haul

Baby See The Colors•My Neighborhood•Messy Bessy’s by Patricia & Fredrick Mckissack•Doc Mcstuffins Bubble-rific

I had went ahead and picked up four books that are quick to read through because of her short attention span. We’re able to read and glance through the book within 5 minutes.

I love the use of brown tones on the top row, because we want her familiar with all skin tones. For the bottom row, the garden teaches a life skill in a few pages while th

The questionable parts of the top books is the ” Chew proof, rip proof, non toxic, %100 washable” because I didn’t receive nothing like that as you can see, and its the main reason I bought it, haha.

Melanin-Cultural Book for Children Haul

Haitian Culture

Freedom Soup & My Day With The Panye by Tami Charles•Tap-Tap by Karen Lynn Williams

These stories are perfect to read before bed time. The illustrations are skillfully captivating and colorful that catch my baby and I’s attention. All 3 books use crèole vocabulary that parents can say around the home.

Favorite book out this section? It would be the Freedom Soup, and I am speaking for myself, haha. Not only does it come with the recipe at the end but it simplifies the history of the soup. For adults the imagery may cause a powerful stir within you. I know it awaken memories of my sweet tea grandmama and mama story-telling while cooking. And to see that in this book brought tears.

West African Culture

African Myths and Folk Tales by Carter Godwin Woodson• The Kidnapped Prince by Olaudah Equiano

I took interest in the African Myths and Folk Tales due to its strong spiritual roots in West Africa. Right now my goal is to learn about the entities like Okun and ____ and find ways to give my baby a visual of these stories. Before this book, I didn’t know many but within this book contain more than 20+ stories. I love it!

The Kidnapped Prince is another important read when Little Coconut gets older. What I found truly exciting was the map to show his travels. I plan on tracing and turning into a visual for little one to see.

Natice American culture

Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Ancestor approved is the Native American version of the African Myths book. With their own folklore, it shares dozens of stories and point of views from various tribes. This would be added to our child collection fo

Afro American Books For Little Girls

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat by Ella Fitzgerald• Vision of Beauty by Kathryn Lasky

Both books share amazing graphics. As usual another great set of mature books that depicts the chocolate skin, coily hair, and dark featurisms beautifully. We currently don’t read this due to her attention span, however her father and I will definitely read them when she’s older.

English/Spanish Flash Card Haul

We are currently using the Three-Letter Words, Ready for School, and El Alfabeto. The rest are unopened. These flashcards has games and different ways of using them. With her little memory she tends to gravitate towards the 3 Lerrer words and number

We’re still designing an a designated area where she can see her ABC’s and numbers on the wall. So we are using unused letters for her to see every time she looks up. This is one of the cheapest set ups for us.

Ivrit (Israelite) Posters Haul

Finally, I bought some posters since they already sold some. We are open to the idea of biblical figures historically depicted as people of color with “wooly” hair. There are not much restrictions in our spirituality and love the idea of teaching her Hebrew and Arabic.

Our mini routine:

With the given items I had purchased, we’ve decided to implement them in our short routine down below.

1. Read the same book 3 times a day; Morning, midday, bedtime
2. 10 flash cards once a day
3. Go over the posters once a day

Conclusion

Eyeseeme receives a 9/10, because of their book selection. It took between 3 to 4 weeks to ship, so the shipping can be a bit long. I couldn’t tell if it was because of Covid-19 or due to supply or demand but I’m glad my purchases came in perfect condition!

What are you favorite Melanin-owned book stores?