Boonoonoonous hair!

The creative team that brought readers Anna Carries Water (2013) reunites to tell a story of a Jamaican child learning to accept her hair. Jamilla's mother goes to great lengths to help her daughter embrace her "electric, kinetic" hair, which Jamilla counters is a pain to tame. However, her mother's offer to give her daughter a different hairstyle every day effectively wins Jamilla over and demonstrates the wonderous potential of her hair. The versatility of Black hair is celebrated and showcased through the cornrows, braids, plaits, afro puffs, twists, bow-adorned afro, and straight hair that Jamilla wears throughout the book. While young readers may sympathize or identify with Jamilla's initial wish to have long, flowing locks like the other girls in her class, they excitedly watch her come to embrace her "fantabulous, splendiferous, boonoonoonous" hair. This story fits into any unit or collection about Black hair and can be paired with Natasha Anastasia Tarpley's I Love My Hair (1998), Sharee Miller's Princess Hair (2017), and Matthew A. Cherry's Hair Love (2019). Preschool-Grade 1. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

A young girl learns to love her difficult-to-manage, voluminous hair. Olive Senior is a Commonwealth Prize-winning Jamaican-Canadian author who has published many fiction works including novels, short story collections and poetry as well as non-fiction books. Her other children's books include Birthday Suit (2012) and Anna Carries Water (2013).

Young Jamilla hates her hair because it doesn't behave like the other girls' hair, but soon her mom shows her how wonderful it can be.

In this picture book, a young black girl learns to love her difficult-to-manage hair.

In this vibrant and exquisitely illustrated picture book, written by Commonwealth Prize-winning Jamaican-Canadian Olive Senior, and with pictures by the acclaimed artist Laura James (the team that created Anna Carries Water), a young girl learns to love her difficult-to-manage, voluminous and boonoonoonous hair.