Hair

Starred review from December 5, 2016
The round-headed baby who has starred in Patricelli’s Boo!, Hop! Hop! and numerous other board books has long been defined by the single, curly hair springing from its head. But what happens when that hair needs a trim? With the baby’s hair now resembling a mangled car antenna, Mom whisks her child to a salon for kids, where the baby calmly submits to the experience (“I put on a funny cape and sit in an airplane!”), providing reassurance for kids whose hair may also be getting a little unruly. Patricelli’s bold acrylics are as entertaining as ever in this warm and funny tribute to the messy everyday life of a tot. Up to age 3.

January 1, 2017

Baby-Toddler-Clad in just a diaper, a cartoon-style white baby declares, "I have a hair!" What follows is a tot-inspired tutorial on how to care for that one curl. Of course, all of that hair maintenance leads to-a haircut! "Will it hurt?" frets the concerned-looking tot, as a lone blue teardrop slides down a rosy cheek. "It did not hurt! Now my hair is just right." The last two pages feature a dozen different types of hair on a multiethnic cast of floating heads. Patricelli's vibrant art style is fully evident and on display here, with brightly hued acrylic paint backgrounds on each spread, chunky black outlines, and lots of smiles. VERDICT A reassuring title to introduce toddlers to their hair and the upkeep required. For early learning collections.-Lisa G. Kropp, Lindenhurst Memorial Library, NY

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
A board book for toddlers who are almost ready for their first haircuts. Patricelli's familiar, light-skinned, oval-headed baby, outlined in black with rosy smudges for cheeks, manages to express a full range of emotion--from pride to fear to worry to surprise and back to pride, all while explaining the importance of hair care. Though this baby has just one curly strand of hair ("I have a hair!"), it still needs to be washed, brushed, and decorated, until it grows so long that it must be cut. Adults may chuckle at the baby's rejection of the dog groomer for that first haircut, but much of the humor will go right over the heads of toddlers. A final double-page spread illustrates "more kinds of hair" with very unbabyish vocabulary--"unibrow," "Mohawk"--mixed in among words such as "beard," and "curly." The baby's reasonable question, "Will it hurt?" gives voice to the concerns of toddlers heading to the barber for the first time, and the turn of the page assures them, "It did not hurt!" Nighty-Night (published simultaneously) will have more long-term use. That same one-haired baby rhymes its way through a bedtime-avoidance routine complete with a subtle homage to Goodnight Moon and an exuberant "naked dance." With its companion, another solid outing for Patricelli's tot. (Board book. 1-3)

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