ME AND MY LONG LONG HAIR

In Dee’s picture book, a girl cuts her hair to donate to a children’s cancer charity.

When Sita Reddy, who has brown skin and dark brown/black tresses, starts at a new middle school in America, she’s surprised when all of her new classmates focus on her long hair. Sita wears it in doubled-up braids, as did most girls at her old school in India; when let loose, it extends past her knees. After the initial fuss dies down (“Why are they staring?”), Sita realizes that most of the kids are quite friendly—all except Chris, a frowning, bespectacled redheaded boy who won’t stop staring at her hair. It turns out that Chris’ fixation is due to him worrying about his sister, Lucy, who has lost her own hair after taking cancer medication. Chris wants to grow his hair longer to make a wig for her. Hearing this, Sita makes the decision to donate her braids to charity, inspiring her new friends to undertake a cancer awareness fundraiser. Dee narrates in the first person from Sita’s perspective, alternating pages of bold-font text with Hercock’s full-page color illustrations, which depict a big-eyed, racially diverse cohort of middle graders, including one student in a wheelchair. The characters all shine through, as does the moral lesson to not tie one’s identity to one’s appearance.

A gentle story of friendship, fitting in, and not judging people on first impressions.