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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
This was a very encouraging and fun book. How to make things better. Work with what you have. Family and friends support. A battle. Accepting change. And LOVE!
A little unrealistic and a very abrupt ending, but I liked it! Easy reading
Culturally specific, lots of kid wish-fulfillment, really acknowledges how important it is to feel like you belong. Great #ownvoices choice for like 2nd-3rd grades.
A boy decides to do his own hairstyles and starts a barber shop when his friends want the same. This was a lot fun and I like J.D.
But I disliked Vanessa so much. She ruined the ending of the book for me. And why would the mom approve of that???
I wanted to read the next book, but with that ending, nah.
Review to come.
But I disliked Vanessa so much. She ruined the ending of the book for me. And why would the mom approve of that???
I wanted to read the next book, but with that ending, nah.
Review to come.
I actually enjoyed reading this.
Eight year old J.D turns a tragic at home haircut into a thriving barber business. He’s mom cuts his hair at home but it’s bad his hairline is uneven and when he gets to school he get insults from the entire school, so he takes matter into his own hands and fix his hair. Turns out he’s a genius with the clippers. At eight. With him being as young as he is being in elementary school he is the talk of the town being able to cut hair as good as he can. But the only barbershop in town does end up losing business to him and is jealous. So a GROWN person is trying to do what he can to shut J.D down and get his clients back.
Eight year old J.D turns a tragic at home haircut into a thriving barber business. He’s mom cuts his hair at home but it’s bad his hairline is uneven and when he gets to school he get insults from the entire school, so he takes matter into his own hands and fix his hair. Turns out he’s a genius with the clippers. At eight. With him being as young as he is being in elementary school he is the talk of the town being able to cut hair as good as he can. But the only barbershop in town does end up losing business to him and is jealous. So a GROWN person is trying to do what he can to shut J.D down and get his clients back.
My 4th grade son and I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook of J.D. and the Great Barber Battle one of the Virginia Readers' Choice selections for 2022-2023. The book starts with a scenario that was entirely relatable to me as a middle-aged white woman: a humiliatingly terrible haircut by one's mother, resulting in relentless teasing at school. So many of my elementary readers can relate, too, even if the scenario is not a haircut....the target audience of young middle grade readers is just entering the phase of life when parents are responsible for all kinds of embarrassing scenarios. J.D.'s problem solving, ingenuity, and spark are a delight to follow. I especially loved the intergenerational affection and love depicted in J.D.'s family. We are looking forward to the sequels.
Highly recommended for elementary readers. Target years would be 2nd-4th, though I've had several 5th graders enjoy it thoroughly.
Highly recommended for elementary readers. Target years would be 2nd-4th, though I've had several 5th graders enjoy it thoroughly.
A lot of us were quickly disabused of our fantasies that we might be harboring secret haircutting skills, once the pandemic hit and home haircuts rose to an all-time high. My own husband accidentally ended up with two buzzed lines on the side of his head ala every single sitcom you’ve ever seen, thanks to my own "skills". Still, the true victims in all of this have to have been the kids. They didn’t ask for their moms and dads to pick up scissors and clippers and go to town on their skulls. I’m no statistician, but I suspect that if you were to pull up some magical graph of nationwide Bad Haircuts, you’d see a sharp increase starting at the beginning of 2020. This is just a long, roundabout way of saying that J. Dillard’s early chapter book J.D. and the Great Barber Battle probably couldn’t be any better timed than it is right now. The story of a boy subjected to an egregious home haircut and who takes that problem as an opportunity to not only learn new skills but also grow his own business . . . well, now that’s the kind of story I think we all need more of right now.
Imagine your mom cuts your hair for the first time. Right before you start the third grade. Right before the first day of school. To say that J.D.’s haircut is bad would be an understatement. And his attempts to fix it himself with his mom’s relaxer? You can imagine how well that goes. In desperation, J.D. takes the clippers to his own head and lo and behold he taps into a hidden talent. Turns out he's a barbering natural! Now every boy in school wants him to do their hair too. Charging less than the local barbers, he’s rich! But Henry Jr., a barber that’s enjoyed a monopoly on the kid haircuts in town, isn’t going down without a fight. It’s up to J.D. to show that sometimes the best barber in Meridian, Mississippi isn’t the tried and true, but the young and hungry.
Now if you’re going to try to get a kid to read an early chapter book, that’s a challenge. Particularly if the book isn’t a comic or graphic novel. This is the age when kids are choosing their own books and trying like mad to avoid the dull, boring, meaningful texts that are out there. They want fun! They want humor! They want what J. Dillard is providing. We always say that “funny is hard” and I suppose that statement both is and isn’t true. It’s hard for some people. But for others, like Mr. Dillard, it seems like second nature. For example, Dillard is a fount of endless bad haircut similes and he puts that talent to good use. “His hair was a jagged pile of mess.” “He looked like someone had put a bowl on his head before doing a lineup, and then a tiger came along and smacked the bowl off with its claws.” And if I’m going to be honest, it’s not like there are a ton of funny early chapter books starring Black boys out there. Sure there are the Julian books by Ann Cameron but those aren’t exactly #ownvoices (or even of this century). There are the Carver Chronicles by Karen English, but those aren’t trying to be funny. Nope. This book holds its own in a rare field, should you be lucky enough to run across it.
The comparison that this book is going to receive the most, I can already sense it, is to [b: The Toothpaste Millionaire|137491|The Toothpaste Millionaire|Jean Merrill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348992676l/137491._SY75_.jpg|17525611] by Jean Merrill. In both cases you have a Black kid who confronts a problem by starting his own business. In both cases the books are for emerging chapter book readers. But that’s also where the comparisons stop. The Toothpaste Millionaire, for all its charms, wasn’t an #ownvoices title either. It had its day (coming out in 1972 and all) but I think it’s time to pass the mic to a newer book. And J.D. has a LOT going on. There’s math in there and wish fulfillment (because this book seems to exist in a world where child labor laws are near non-existent, so you may as well roll with it). There’s contemporary dialogue, contemporary references to sports teams and comics and movies, and a contemporary look. Essentially, it's a book I've been waiting for for a very long time.
Oh hey, fair play to artist Akeem Roberts who had to illustrate a whole swath of those haircuts Dillard mentions in the book. From hi-top fades to pompadours, he has to bring those cuts to life. I got really attached to his style in the book too. Mr. Roberts has an animation background, and you can tell. Animators, after all, have a tendency to distinguish themselves when they illustrate books. Something to do with the amount of emotion they’re able to pour into their characters’ faces. If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I listened to this book on audio book first, so coming back to the art by Mr. Roberts afterwards was fascinating. The antagonist, Henry Jr., actually looked like a much cooler dude than the one I’d put into my head. All the other details checked out, though, and I found myself rereading the book just so that I could see how the picture fit into the whole. Not sure if I’d recommend this technique to every reader out there, but it certainly gave me a more rounded sense of how the art and text work together.
Look, the long and the short of it is that I’m a white woman from the Midwest who doesn’t know boo about Black haircuts. J. Dillard, on the other hand, literally starting cutting his own hair at ten. To be honest, I’m not going to know what in this book rings as inauthentic. Ditto Mississippi. I don’t know what it’s like to live there. So for his first book, J. Dillard based a lot of it off of his own life growing up in Mississippi and that kind of realism comes through. You can feel this town. You can feel the setting, the characters, and the situations. Sure, there are things that don’t make sense to me even know. For example, I’m still not sure how colored pencils are any use with hair (Dillard sort of skims over the details with that one). And I’m also not sure how small Meridian, Mississippi is since it’s, like, the seventh largest city in the state with a population of 41,148. Still and all, this book is rare. It’s honestly fun, funny, and it comes up with some original storytelling that’s just a delight. Not sure how many kids will be inspired to pick up a set of clippers after reading this book, but even if it’s just one, this is a book worth putting in every library and school. Cause if even one kid figures out that sometimes you can turn your hobby into your job, that realization will be worth it.
For ages 6-9
Imagine your mom cuts your hair for the first time. Right before you start the third grade. Right before the first day of school. To say that J.D.’s haircut is bad would be an understatement. And his attempts to fix it himself with his mom’s relaxer? You can imagine how well that goes. In desperation, J.D. takes the clippers to his own head and lo and behold he taps into a hidden talent. Turns out he's a barbering natural! Now every boy in school wants him to do their hair too. Charging less than the local barbers, he’s rich! But Henry Jr., a barber that’s enjoyed a monopoly on the kid haircuts in town, isn’t going down without a fight. It’s up to J.D. to show that sometimes the best barber in Meridian, Mississippi isn’t the tried and true, but the young and hungry.
Now if you’re going to try to get a kid to read an early chapter book, that’s a challenge. Particularly if the book isn’t a comic or graphic novel. This is the age when kids are choosing their own books and trying like mad to avoid the dull, boring, meaningful texts that are out there. They want fun! They want humor! They want what J. Dillard is providing. We always say that “funny is hard” and I suppose that statement both is and isn’t true. It’s hard for some people. But for others, like Mr. Dillard, it seems like second nature. For example, Dillard is a fount of endless bad haircut similes and he puts that talent to good use. “His hair was a jagged pile of mess.” “He looked like someone had put a bowl on his head before doing a lineup, and then a tiger came along and smacked the bowl off with its claws.” And if I’m going to be honest, it’s not like there are a ton of funny early chapter books starring Black boys out there. Sure there are the Julian books by Ann Cameron but those aren’t exactly #ownvoices (or even of this century). There are the Carver Chronicles by Karen English, but those aren’t trying to be funny. Nope. This book holds its own in a rare field, should you be lucky enough to run across it.
The comparison that this book is going to receive the most, I can already sense it, is to [b: The Toothpaste Millionaire|137491|The Toothpaste Millionaire|Jean Merrill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348992676l/137491._SY75_.jpg|17525611] by Jean Merrill. In both cases you have a Black kid who confronts a problem by starting his own business. In both cases the books are for emerging chapter book readers. But that’s also where the comparisons stop. The Toothpaste Millionaire, for all its charms, wasn’t an #ownvoices title either. It had its day (coming out in 1972 and all) but I think it’s time to pass the mic to a newer book. And J.D. has a LOT going on. There’s math in there and wish fulfillment (because this book seems to exist in a world where child labor laws are near non-existent, so you may as well roll with it). There’s contemporary dialogue, contemporary references to sports teams and comics and movies, and a contemporary look. Essentially, it's a book I've been waiting for for a very long time.
Oh hey, fair play to artist Akeem Roberts who had to illustrate a whole swath of those haircuts Dillard mentions in the book. From hi-top fades to pompadours, he has to bring those cuts to life. I got really attached to his style in the book too. Mr. Roberts has an animation background, and you can tell. Animators, after all, have a tendency to distinguish themselves when they illustrate books. Something to do with the amount of emotion they’re able to pour into their characters’ faces. If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I listened to this book on audio book first, so coming back to the art by Mr. Roberts afterwards was fascinating. The antagonist, Henry Jr., actually looked like a much cooler dude than the one I’d put into my head. All the other details checked out, though, and I found myself rereading the book just so that I could see how the picture fit into the whole. Not sure if I’d recommend this technique to every reader out there, but it certainly gave me a more rounded sense of how the art and text work together.
Look, the long and the short of it is that I’m a white woman from the Midwest who doesn’t know boo about Black haircuts. J. Dillard, on the other hand, literally starting cutting his own hair at ten. To be honest, I’m not going to know what in this book rings as inauthentic. Ditto Mississippi. I don’t know what it’s like to live there. So for his first book, J. Dillard based a lot of it off of his own life growing up in Mississippi and that kind of realism comes through. You can feel this town. You can feel the setting, the characters, and the situations. Sure, there are things that don’t make sense to me even know. For example, I’m still not sure how colored pencils are any use with hair (Dillard sort of skims over the details with that one). And I’m also not sure how small Meridian, Mississippi is since it’s, like, the seventh largest city in the state with a population of 41,148. Still and all, this book is rare. It’s honestly fun, funny, and it comes up with some original storytelling that’s just a delight. Not sure how many kids will be inspired to pick up a set of clippers after reading this book, but even if it’s just one, this is a book worth putting in every library and school. Cause if even one kid figures out that sometimes you can turn your hobby into your job, that realization will be worth it.
For ages 6-9
3.5
With a feel-good plot and upbeat attitude, J.D.'s barber battle may be an easy comfort read for kids of the target age but it doesn't pass beyond cursory entertainment when anyone starts asking questions.
With a feel-good plot and upbeat attitude, J.D.'s barber battle may be an easy comfort read for kids of the target age but it doesn't pass beyond cursory entertainment when anyone starts asking questions.
This is probably one of the best children's chapter books I've read in a while. It was so dang good. 4.5 Stars. I was provided a copy of the book for review. All thoughts are my own.
J.D. and the Great Barber Battle is the first in a new children's book series that focuses on main character J.D. has he tries to navigate a horrible haircut that his mother gives him before the first day of school. Instead of continuing to allow the kids at school to make fun of him, J.D. decides to take things into his own hands. The results are pretty interesting and J.D. finds himself in a barber battle of the ages. This is a wonderful book that focuses on the positive aspects of Black hair culture, friendship, and family.
This is definitely a book that needs to get into the hands of so many young readers. Hair culture is extremely important to the Black community and seeing a Black boy talk about the importance not only of his haircut, but the interesting aspects of the inner world of barbershop culture is something that I haven't seen before in a chapter book. J Dillard discusses these things with such positivity and reverence that I can only imagine how many young children will pick this book up and feel seen or feel a special connection to the characters. There is great representation of family and supportive family structure. I personally related to the strong connection between grandparents and grandchildren. Honestly, this book has a little something for everyone in every age group. And it is HILARIOUS. I knew that there was a possibility that J.D. was going to get into some crazy things, but I didn't think that it was going to make me laugh out loud. The illustrations are a wonderful addition to the narrative and really pull the entire story together.
Keep in mind that the target audience for this book is children probably in between 2nd - 4th grade so if you're an adult reader some aspects of it may seem unrealistic especially in relation to the barber battle; however, it's great fun for kids and I think that they will really enjoy it considering it is intended for them. Overall, this was a great start to the series. I saw that a new book in the series is coming out later this year and I'm extremely excited to read it.
J.D. and the Great Barber Battle is the first in a new children's book series that focuses on main character J.D. has he tries to navigate a horrible haircut that his mother gives him before the first day of school. Instead of continuing to allow the kids at school to make fun of him, J.D. decides to take things into his own hands. The results are pretty interesting and J.D. finds himself in a barber battle of the ages. This is a wonderful book that focuses on the positive aspects of Black hair culture, friendship, and family.
This is definitely a book that needs to get into the hands of so many young readers. Hair culture is extremely important to the Black community and seeing a Black boy talk about the importance not only of his haircut, but the interesting aspects of the inner world of barbershop culture is something that I haven't seen before in a chapter book. J Dillard discusses these things with such positivity and reverence that I can only imagine how many young children will pick this book up and feel seen or feel a special connection to the characters. There is great representation of family and supportive family structure. I personally related to the strong connection between grandparents and grandchildren. Honestly, this book has a little something for everyone in every age group. And it is HILARIOUS. I knew that there was a possibility that J.D. was going to get into some crazy things, but I didn't think that it was going to make me laugh out loud. The illustrations are a wonderful addition to the narrative and really pull the entire story together.
Keep in mind that the target audience for this book is children probably in between 2nd - 4th grade so if you're an adult reader some aspects of it may seem unrealistic especially in relation to the barber battle; however, it's great fun for kids and I think that they will really enjoy it considering it is intended for them. Overall, this was a great start to the series. I saw that a new book in the series is coming out later this year and I'm extremely excited to read it.
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes