Celebrating Through Eyes Like Mine

This weekend, I watched my little ones chase a ball across green grass. I moved laundry from hamper, to washer, to dryer, folded and put away small pajamas, underwear, socks, shirt, shorts, and sweaters. Friends came over to play, and we watched sports and movies and snuggled on the couch on a fall weekend when the weather in our city was still to hot for my liking. I went to bed tired each night from the day. 

Looking back at Through Eyes Like Mine, this early childhood memoir told by the child I once was, I realize now there is no way I could have written this book after having kids. My perspective on my own childhood has shifted so much, even though the memories are the same. 

It’s ready. The re-release of Through Eyes Like Mine is available for purchase. You can find it on Amazon (I know, complicated) or buy it directly from me (send me a message). Or you can request it from your local bookseller. 

This release has a new foreword by my sister, Laura Yukiko Nakada Flennaugh, and the cover was updated by my niece, Laura's daughter, Nicole Flennaugh.

The rest of the book is pretty much the same. But since it’s release in 2010, it was shortlisted for the 2040 Book Prize in 2018. An excerpt, “Big Brother” was published by Hippocampus in 2011.

And after the last presidential election, it seems even more important to illuminate the complexities of growing up multiracial in rural Oregon.

It is the first in the Through Eyes Like Mine series, and in the coming days, you will be able to order the others. 

The soundtrack to this album includes: Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Getting to Know You” from The King and I, Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken,” and U2’s “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” 

Excerpts have also appeared on the blog, so if you want a taste check out “Snow Day,” “Surviving Easter,” "Wishing for Snow," “Movie Night," “Chet’s Return."

And tomorrow, we'll revisit middle school with Overdue Apologies. I know. No one wants to go back there, but I'm there nearly every day.