HAPPY TO BE NAPPY

PLB 0-7868-2377-1 Happy To Be Nappy (32 pp.; $14.95; PLB $15.49; Sept.; 0-7868-0427-0; PLB 0-7868-2377-1): Intentionally or not, this short paean to natural, in-all-its-glory hair constitutes a spirited response to the voices raised in protest over Carolivia Herron’s Nappy Hair (1997). Raschka pairs hook’s song praising “girlpie hair . . . for hands to touch and play!/Hair to take the gloom away” with impressionistic compositions of exuberantly dancing children, all sporting inky black locks rendered with calligraphic brush strokes. The big daubs of background color seem to dance and spin with the figures, visual music to match the verbal. (Picture book. 6-8)