Sunday, May 29, 2011

Nappy Hair

Nappy Hair
Carolivia Herron (1997)


This book is one of the books we read in our class that could be considered controversial.  Now, a person should never judge a book by its cover, but the first thing that a person sees when selecting a book is its title.  The term "nappy" to describe an African-American's hair could be considered as derogatory, so it is no wonder that the potential reader may question if this book is okay to read or not after first-sight with the book!  I think that this book could be considered offensive, only because the word "nappy" is used frequently through out.  The book is about an old man telling the story of a little girl, Brenda, and how she was born and lived with nappy hair.  The reader gets the sense that it is not okay to have "nappy" hair because she is the only one who has it.  It sends out a negative message, which I did not think was appropriate at all.  The book only has one page--the last, saying something along the lines that it is okay to have that hair.  I just found the last page to be surprising, because I feel like the statement was made out of nowhere, especially as there was no indication or build-up in the story that it is okay to have "nappy" hair.  Overall, I will not use this book in my future classrooms.  Had the book put out more positive messages about how everyone's hair is different, it is okay to be different, etc, then it could possibly be used as a learning tool in the classroom. I do not recommend this book.

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