My Hair is Magic!

This little girl knows her hair is great just as it is. When people ask, “Why is your hair so BIG?” she answers, “Why isn’t yours?” Her hair is soft, it protects her, it’s both gentle and fierce. While some might worry about how it’s different and try to contain it, she gives it the freedom to be so extraordinary it almost has a life of its own.

Told in bold verse and vivid, fantastical illustrations, these critical questions will ring familiar, and the proud, confident answers show that what really matters is how readers see themselves.

M.L. Marroquin is a reading intervention teacher whose interests include drawing, watching movies, and going to the beach. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her two daughters, who she assures have beautiful hair any way they wear it. This is her debut picture book.

Tonya Engel is an artist who has had studios in New York, Paris, Austin and Houston, where she lives now. Figurative and full of symbolism, her work is influenced by both folk artists of the Deep South and contemporary masters like Frida Kahlo and Marc Chagnall. She is also the illustrator of Rise!, a children’s biography of Maya Angelou (Lee & Low, 2019).