“I felt a need for someone to want the black baby to live—just to counteract the universal love of white baby dolls, Shirley Temples, and Maureen Peals.”

This a line from ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison. An extremely painful novel about Pecola, a young black girl, who, because of insecurities caused by those around her, which were caused by the racism around them, begs for the bluest eyes like those of white baby dolls. I feel a great shame to admit that this is the first ever Toni Morrison book that I’ve read—it only took me 28 years to get to this point—but I’m very grateful to have read it. This will definitely be one of those books that sticks with me a long time, if not forever. It is simultaneously tragic and beautiful, brutal and poetic. The topics discussed in this novel, through the eyes of little kids too, are not what little kids are supposed to be discussing. Self loathing, sexual assault, insanity. This makes it even more emotionally difficult to read, but I would recommend this book to everyone.