Haircuts at Sleepy Sam's

When three brothers enter the barbershop with a note from their mother for their weekly haircuts, Sleepy Sam decides it's time to try something new and exciting and so heads out onto the street to gather styling suggestions from the passing townsfolk.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-It's Saturday morning and haircut time for three African-American brothers. While their mother insists on natural Afro cuts, the boys yearn for the contemporary shorter styles worn by their friends. Readers follow the children as they walk to Sam's Barbershop where they give Sam the envelope from their mother that contains instructions and money for the haircuts. Three barbers work on the siblings and when they are finished, the boys have the haircuts they wanted. The pastel and airbrush illustrations lend a light, cheery tone and portray a lively community. The photographic quality of the facial expressions invites readers to join in the joking and horseplay at the barbershop. Both the first-person narrative and the illustrations reveal the close-knit relationships of the brothers and their surroundings. The text flows well and is a good choice for reading aloud. For similar books, see Margaree King Mitchell's Uncle Jed's Barbershop (S & S, 1993) and Natasha Tarpley's I Love My Hair (Little, Brown, 1997).
Shawn Brommer, Southern Tier Library System, Painted Post, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Three brothers take a Saturday morning trip to Sam's barber shop in this affable if slim story, narrated by the youngest sibling. Though their mother sends them with a note instructing the barber not to trim her sons' Afro cuts too short on top, the boysAand SamAhave a different style in mind. Strickland, who has compiled several poetry anthologies for children, shapes credible dialogue and gives his narrative a bouncy cadence: awaiting their turn in the barber's chair, the brothers "watch the men cut hair and talk, cut hair and joke, cut hair and argue, cut hair and laugh, cut hair and boogie to the oldies on the radio." Holliday's (First by Secondhand) 1970s' palette underscores Mom's old-fashioned ideas and the barbers' banter about boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Rendered with airbrush and pastel chalk, his pictures showcase the animated expressions of the characters with close-to-photographic clarity against faded backgrounds of chartreuse, mauve and beige. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-7. Barbara Barber's warm picture book Saturday at the New You (1994) is about a small African American girl having fun in her mother's neighborhood beauty shop. Here the setting is a city barbershop, where a boy and his two older brothers go for their usual haircut. They have a note from their mother to the barber Sam that they are to keep their Afro cuts ("not too short on the top"), but what the brothers would really like are bald fades--and Sam gives them what they want. Warm, rhythmic words and energetic, light-filled illustrations in airbrush and pastel chalk capture the fun these kids have on this Saturday morning, at home, in the neighborhood, and especially in the barber's chair as they watch the men "cut hair and talk, cut hair and joke, cut hair and argue, cut hair and laugh, cut hair and boogie to the oldies on the radio." Hazel Rochman