Happy to be Nappy

By: Bell Hooks and Chris Raschka (1999)

This story is about embracing the different types of hair styles of African American girls. The pictures show kids that are very happy, are having fun with each other, and seem to be spending time with their families in a loving atmosphere. The book seems to be telling children to be happy with who they are and what they look like.

I am not sure what was controversial with this book because it seemed to be about different hair styles and being happy with the one you have. I think that this is a good message to tell children and I am not sure why there were apparently some problems with this book.

I really liked the pictures in this book because I thought they showed a lot of emotion and really helped you feel the happiness from the characters. There were not many words in the book so the pictures really helped tell the story. I thought that the message got a little repetitive towards the end because it seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over, but it was still a good book to read.

This may be a book that I would read in class if there seemed to be problems with children making fun of one another because of their physical characteristics. It also may be a good book to read to make my classroom more diverse because many of the picture books show mainly white children so this would be a good opportunity for students to either be exposed to more diversity or to make them feel more comfortable in my classroom because they could relate to this book. As an activity, I may have students practice giving compliments by saying something that they like about themselves, and then saying something nice about other students in the class as well.