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clairesneverland's review
4.0
I adored this! Show little girls of all backgrounds to embrace and love their hair. The art was beautiful and so was the story. Will definitely get copies for my nieces.
I received a free copy via netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free copy via netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
moxiegirlzriot's review
5.0
Perfect for a storytime! Rhythm and flow without feeling too "rhyme-y", with gorgeous illustrations and a wonderful look at hair from dual ethnicities. In a market with many stories about hair right now, this one stands out!
lkb0154's review
4.0
Hair Story is a short and cute children's book about loving your hair even when it hurts. The art was pretty. I can relate a lot to the section about straightening hair. I don't miss those days.
Thank you NetGalley for a free copy of this.
Thank you NetGalley for a free copy of this.
msqueenieclem's review
5.0
The story is about two girls told in rhyming verse. It's about how to tame their wild hair. I love the story because I can relate to these young girls. I recommend it to all girls with wild hair. I give this book five stars.
bbckprpl's review
5.0
I'm having a hard time explaining just how much I loved this book, but I'm going to do my best.
First off, Hair Story is own voices written & illustrated, and both the author, NoNieqa Ramos, and the illustrator, Keisha Morris, include their own hair stories at the back of the book, which was a lovely surprise.
Second, do you see these illustrations?
The texture and colors and patterns and perfection of them? You can see the love in that grandmother's face, the joy in these girl's eyes, and I basically wanted to just post the whole book because I loved so many of the pictures. Even the sun is smiling in this drawing. :) I just immediately added all of Morris' other work to my TBR mountain.
Then there's the text, and it's strikingly amazing. Ramos pulls off all sorts of rhyming wizardry - y'all know how particular I am about rhyme schemes, and this one hit every mark it went for, and more. The more? Adding text in slang, textspeak, AAVE, Spanish, and (according the author's Goodreads comment I just saw when I went to post this review) "Spanglish", in an amalgam of different accents & languages that just blend into a really accurate portrayal of the kind of language all the multilingual kids I know actually speak. And yes, we count AAVE and slang as languages, and I wrote about why, but I'm going to just quote even more directly from the author, because she says it much better than I did.
"Diversity means including authentic voices; it means writing one's own voice; it means putting these books on shelves and into the hands of children....if we truly want to uplift marginalized voices we cannot say grammatical English is the gold standard in the classroom and in the library and AAVE, Spanglish, and "slang" is only acceptable in the streets or only palatable in narratives of trauma.
Because truly, among many many other things AAVE, Spanglish, and "slang" is the people's poetry. Free verse, what I write, is what I consider the jazz of poetry. It's sometimes unpredictable. There might be a little chaos. It sometimes takes a minute to understand. But that's O.K. We certainly have spent centuries trying to understand the canon of white men. Men in general, really. Sometimes, we have to learn to tune our ears-and tune out our biases--to hear the music.
In fact, including "big words" like "resilience" and "slang" in my book was quite intentional."
And she's 100% right.
I used to teach reading to littles, and I lived & taught in a pretty diverse city. In fact, I once had a kid tell me that I was "ghost white," which is not wrong. In that kind of environment, I learned very quickly that the kids in my class needed to see themselves in the books we were reading, but 20 years ago, that wasn't as easy as it is today. We managed to find quite a few books with kids of all different cultures and colors, and I'm still proud of the library we managed to put together. But something that I realize now I mostly overlooked was how the kids in those books spoke. They didn't speak like the kids in my classroom, and that was a failure on my part. Kids need to hear their own languages in books, just as much as they need to see their own faces and read about their own experiences. Representation matters, and it matters in ways you/I may not have considered previously. I'm glad that there are books out there now, like Hair Story, that flow this seamlessly between dialects and descriptions of experiences that kids of often underrepresented cultures and colors will get to experience.
And the way the words are crafted in this book - it's breathtaking, honestly. From multiple metaphors - I particularly enjoyed "Fingers and rubber bands choreograph. Hairs dance. Jete'. Chasse'. Hooray for braid ballet." - to moving from conversations to thoughts and back again without faltering, this text is definitely poetry. (And, if you don't happen to speak any of the extra languages included, there's also a handy glossary at the back, including a pronunciation guide.)
But if I've learned anything from all the incredible Black activists and advocates that I follow on social media, it's that hair, and Black hair in particular, is never "just hair." Now, this is usually in response to some utter nonsense like cultural appropriation of dreads or a child being unable to wear their natural hair to school, but it's also about the central role hair plays in so many cultures, and the positive/negative cultural touchstones that belong to certain communities that include hair. And Hair Story embodies these over and over again.
From the first words of the book, which say "Baby's crown," to the last, "woven glory," each word, sentence, picture and prose of Hair Story means & shows more than what we can see on the page. "strands of strength and loss. Resilience & pride intertwined", Ramos writes, and that double-sided element is evident on every page of the book. The author celebrates everything here, both ups and downs - the having to sit still forevers, but also the freedom of letting it flow in the wind. And then she gives us a mural full of "Fro-ments in time:" A mural full of famous Black, Afro-Lantix & non-Black Latinx people and their incredible hair too, and later on, little bios and bits and pieces about the people included in the mural, so you can read & learn more about them too.
Because hair is about more than hair, for so many people. And I'm glad to have found this book that illustrates that so beautifully and clearly.
In fact I'm going to tag this with #Uncannon for CBR13Bingo, because it definitely should be taught in schools.
I got my copy through NetGalley, and they tell me #Hair Story by NoNieqa Ramos & Keisha Morris will be available September 7, 2021.
First off, Hair Story is own voices written & illustrated, and both the author, NoNieqa Ramos, and the illustrator, Keisha Morris, include their own hair stories at the back of the book, which was a lovely surprise.
Second, do you see these illustrations?
The texture and colors and patterns and perfection of them? You can see the love in that grandmother's face, the joy in these girl's eyes, and I basically wanted to just post the whole book because I loved so many of the pictures. Even the sun is smiling in this drawing. :) I just immediately added all of Morris' other work to my TBR mountain.
Then there's the text, and it's strikingly amazing. Ramos pulls off all sorts of rhyming wizardry - y'all know how particular I am about rhyme schemes, and this one hit every mark it went for, and more. The more? Adding text in slang, textspeak, AAVE, Spanish, and (according the author's Goodreads comment I just saw when I went to post this review) "Spanglish", in an amalgam of different accents & languages that just blend into a really accurate portrayal of the kind of language all the multilingual kids I know actually speak. And yes, we count AAVE and slang as languages, and I wrote about why, but I'm going to just quote even more directly from the author, because she says it much better than I did.
"Diversity means including authentic voices; it means writing one's own voice; it means putting these books on shelves and into the hands of children....if we truly want to uplift marginalized voices we cannot say grammatical English is the gold standard in the classroom and in the library and AAVE, Spanglish, and "slang" is only acceptable in the streets or only palatable in narratives of trauma.
Because truly, among many many other things AAVE, Spanglish, and "slang" is the people's poetry. Free verse, what I write, is what I consider the jazz of poetry. It's sometimes unpredictable. There might be a little chaos. It sometimes takes a minute to understand. But that's O.K. We certainly have spent centuries trying to understand the canon of white men. Men in general, really. Sometimes, we have to learn to tune our ears-and tune out our biases--to hear the music.
In fact, including "big words" like "resilience" and "slang" in my book was quite intentional."
And she's 100% right.
I used to teach reading to littles, and I lived & taught in a pretty diverse city. In fact, I once had a kid tell me that I was "ghost white," which is not wrong. In that kind of environment, I learned very quickly that the kids in my class needed to see themselves in the books we were reading, but 20 years ago, that wasn't as easy as it is today. We managed to find quite a few books with kids of all different cultures and colors, and I'm still proud of the library we managed to put together. But something that I realize now I mostly overlooked was how the kids in those books spoke. They didn't speak like the kids in my classroom, and that was a failure on my part. Kids need to hear their own languages in books, just as much as they need to see their own faces and read about their own experiences. Representation matters, and it matters in ways you/I may not have considered previously. I'm glad that there are books out there now, like Hair Story, that flow this seamlessly between dialects and descriptions of experiences that kids of often underrepresented cultures and colors will get to experience.
And the way the words are crafted in this book - it's breathtaking, honestly. From multiple metaphors - I particularly enjoyed "Fingers and rubber bands choreograph. Hairs dance. Jete'. Chasse'. Hooray for braid ballet." - to moving from conversations to thoughts and back again without faltering, this text is definitely poetry. (And, if you don't happen to speak any of the extra languages included, there's also a handy glossary at the back, including a pronunciation guide.)
But if I've learned anything from all the incredible Black activists and advocates that I follow on social media, it's that hair, and Black hair in particular, is never "just hair." Now, this is usually in response to some utter nonsense like cultural appropriation of dreads or a child being unable to wear their natural hair to school, but it's also about the central role hair plays in so many cultures, and the positive/negative cultural touchstones that belong to certain communities that include hair. And Hair Story embodies these over and over again.
From the first words of the book, which say "Baby's crown," to the last, "woven glory," each word, sentence, picture and prose of Hair Story means & shows more than what we can see on the page. "strands of strength and loss. Resilience & pride intertwined", Ramos writes, and that double-sided element is evident on every page of the book. The author celebrates everything here, both ups and downs - the having to sit still forevers, but also the freedom of letting it flow in the wind. And then she gives us a mural full of "Fro-ments in time:" A mural full of famous Black, Afro-Lantix & non-Black Latinx people and their incredible hair too, and later on, little bios and bits and pieces about the people included in the mural, so you can read & learn more about them too.
Because hair is about more than hair, for so many people. And I'm glad to have found this book that illustrates that so beautifully and clearly.
In fact I'm going to tag this with #Uncannon for CBR13Bingo, because it definitely should be taught in schools.
I got my copy through NetGalley, and they tell me #Hair Story by NoNieqa Ramos & Keisha Morris will be available September 7, 2021.
ljrinaldi's review
4.0
This is a wonderful book for all the kids out there who do not have "normal" hair. And "normal" is in quotes because what does that mean?
This is for all the kids who have hair that won't behave. That takes on a life of its own. Hair that wants to be natural.
The book is full of spanglish and slang, but that's just fine, because there is a glossary at the back.
And if you have to consult the glossary, nothing wrong with that. And if you have to look up all the natural hair people listed in the back, that means you have learned something new.
This is a fun, bright book, and is for all the children out there who don't fit in with the Western white idea of what hair should look like.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
This is for all the kids who have hair that won't behave. That takes on a life of its own. Hair that wants to be natural.
The book is full of spanglish and slang, but that's just fine, because there is a glossary at the back.
And if you have to consult the glossary, nothing wrong with that. And if you have to look up all the natural hair people listed in the back, that means you have learned something new.
This is a fun, bright book, and is for all the children out there who don't fit in with the Western white idea of what hair should look like.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
angkunkel's review
5.0
What a rhythmic, joyous celebration of natural hair from author NoNieqa Ramos and illustrator Keisha Morris. Illustrations and an author's note on "fro-ments" in history, as well as the book's beautiful final lines, underscore the fact that hair is not just a physical feature, but part of one's identity and culture.
storielore's review
As a (proud af) afro latina with an interesting mix of 3b-4a hair
cynthiasreadinglist's review
5.0
The illustrations are absolutely stunning and because they drew me in from the second I opened the book, I need to address them first. They pop off the page and the faces are expressive and so fun to engage with. I nearly started bawling when Preciosa and Rudine are born-- the love and joy that's felt off page from their families is just too powerful! I also love the details like when Rudine is getting her hair done and there's all these beauty supply items exploding around her or when the ballerinas are connected with braids! Too creative.
The text is lively, rhythmic, and fun and will connect with many BIPOC readers, both caregivers and kids alike. It is intentionally so and it's very exciting when books that highlight certain communities reflect speech patterns and language of the represented community. If I was planing to do a storytime or read this book one on one, I'd definitely give it a run through on my own first and prepare the glossary in case there's questions. Some folks act as if you can't read books prior to presenting them to kids as if it will take weeks to complete....it's a picture book. It's okay to practice words you don't know and look them up. It's also perfectly fine to learn WITH kids! The book is not "too difficult" for 3-5 year olds and the illustrations do an amazing job for if a younger reader just wanted to sit and flip through. The words and illustrations pair perfectly that way.
Anyways, 1000% recommend this beautiful book!
Disclaimer: Review copy provided by publisher.
The text is lively, rhythmic, and fun and will connect with many BIPOC readers, both caregivers and kids alike. It is intentionally so and it's very exciting when books that highlight certain communities reflect speech patterns and language of the represented community. If I was planing to do a storytime or read this book one on one, I'd definitely give it a run through on my own first and prepare the glossary in case there's questions. Some folks act as if you can't read books prior to presenting them to kids as if it will take weeks to complete....it's a picture book. It's okay to practice words you don't know and look them up. It's also perfectly fine to learn WITH kids! The book is not "too difficult" for 3-5 year olds and the illustrations do an amazing job for if a younger reader just wanted to sit and flip through. The words and illustrations pair perfectly that way.
Anyways, 1000% recommend this beautiful book!
Disclaimer: Review copy provided by publisher.
crunden's review
✾ children’s book review ✾
Aww, this is such a sweet story featuring two girls celebrating their hair. The rhymes are funny and diverse, and the artwork is seriously cute. The rhymes incorporate English and Spanish, too, which I really liked. Definitely a great book for young kids!
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
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Aww, this is such a sweet story featuring two girls celebrating their hair. The rhymes are funny and diverse, and the artwork is seriously cute. The rhymes incorporate English and Spanish, too, which I really liked. Definitely a great book for young kids!
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
☆ Blog | Twitter ☆