Readers who enjoy Yesenia Moises’ Stella’s Stellar Hair (2021) and M.L. Haitian American author Doyon creates an affirming story, enhanced by Black illustrator Bowers’ use of bright colors, lots of bold, face-front images, and beautiful natural settings to positively portray dark skin, African physical features, and highly textured hair. On each double-page spread, she likens her hair to something in nature: When she wears it loose, her hair resembles ocean currents she compares her Bantu knots to the windswept desert with colorful barrettes in it, her hair is “a cloudless sky on a winter night” and her braids are “like long vines tumbling from a garden trellis.” After each simile comes the refrain: “My hair is like that”- majestic, mischievous, stunning, elegant, etc. She then describes a plethora of hairstyles she wears that show the versatility of her Afro-textured hair. While she cringes when her mother combs out her tangles to style her hair, she admires and appreciates the results. A 20-some–years-later companion to Natasha Tarpley’s I Love My Hair (1998).Ī young, dark-skinned, brown-eyed Black girl declares, “My hair is magic,” as she smiles at her own image in a mirror while her puffy, freshly shampooed hair drips.
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