Ai & Aiko and the Little Curve

K-Gr 2–Ai, a gentle, kind child with paper-white skin and a bird-shaped mass of paper-white hair, loves to spend time with Grandpa. As this story begins, they are spending a Sunday morning together inside the confines of Grandpa’s closed cafe. Grandpa is teaching Ai how to draw a self-portrait, emphasizing that this will help Ai (with he/his pronouns) to remember to love himself. When Ai shows his self-portrait to his grandpa, his teacher tells him that it would be better “if you add a little curve,” and so Ai instantly uses his magic scarf to explore the world looking for “a little curve he can add.” In this world of human characters who have more realistic-colored skin tones, Ai begins in the skies with the curves of a cloud and a rainbow and ends back at the cafe. This didactic disappointment from an online creative phenomenon has heartfelt message that falls a little flat in this format.