I Love my Hair! Picture Book #2

The Book

Tarpley, N. & White, E.B. (Illus.). (1998). I love my hair! New York: Little, Brown and Company.


Summary

I love my Hair! details the many different ways a young African-American girl named Keyana wore her hair and the various reactions each hairstyle got. Keyana starts off being frustrated with her hair and how it always hurt when her mother combed it. Then one night while her mother is combing her hair she tells Keyana about all the different wonderful ways she could wear her hair and how lucky she is to have such beautiful hair. Keyana begins to think about each hairstyle and why she likes each one and in the end she realizes how much she loves her hair and the many reasons why. Through the encouragement of her mother and her teacher's Keyana learns to appreciate her hair, herself and her heritage. This book is a great book for recognizing and empowering the African-American heritage and contains beautiful illustrations that blend fantasy and reality as Keyana reflects upon each hairstyle.


Response

This book was so fun to read! It is a good book for younger children and nicely introduces them to diversity and how we should all celebrate our differences. It's beautiful illustrations as well as the imaginative elements of the book make this book an enjoyable read for everyone. I really enjoyed how the main character is African-American as I have not been exposed to many books where the main characters and illustrations reflect African American culture and values. I love how E.B White illustrates the different hairstyles into real life examples, such as braids at the top of Keyana's head become hoed rows of vegetables in a field. I think this makes the book more meaningful to readers as it allows them to feel connected through examples they can relate to. This book is also great as it depicts a situation that is so familiar among many cultures. Having your hair combed as a child, especially when it is tangly or curly is never a fun event and this book allows these children to see how lucky they are and even reflect on their own different ways of wearing their hair and even other aspects of themselves that they enjoy that makes them an individual. I believe that literature containing African Americans as central characters is vital for all children, it allows them to gain respect for diversity and empowers African American children as their characteristics and heritages are the main focus of these pieces of literature.

Awards received/ Reader's advisory information

As far as I know this book has not received any awards. It's theme is one of diversity and individuality and it would be most appropriate for young readers, maybe ages 4-10. However, I think people of all ages would enjoy it as it's broad range of imaginitve illustrations and creative examples is suitable for anyone. It helps foster respect for differences and teaches children to be proud of their heritage. It allows reader's to think of what they love about themselves and why, and could be used for an Elementary Language Arts, Art or Social Studies lesson that fosters individuality and diversity.