Wild, Wild Hair (level 3) (Hello Reader)

Hating having to get her wild hair painfully combed and braided every Monday, Tisa decides to hide, but once her hair is done, she loves it so much that her mother cannot tear her away from the mirror. Original.

Kindergarten-Grade 2. Tisa Walker dreads Monday mornings. "School was not the problem./She liked going there./But Monday was the day/Mommy braided Tisa's hair." She hides, but every week her mother finds her, combs and carefully braids her long, thick hair into 20 elaborately plaited braids. Grimes uses her beautiful poetic touch to narrate this story told in easy-to-read rhyming couplets. Ford's appealing watercolor artwork, done largely in pastel shades, extends and adorns the simple story. The artist depicts warm and loving African-American family members, all of whom seem to devote Monday mornings to getting Tisa ready to face the world. In the end, the child is very pleased with herself, but every reader will guess that she'll try to avoid the combing and braiding next week. An enjoyable read-aloud or read-alone.?Sharon R. Pearce, San Antonio Public Library, TX
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 1^-2. Grimes' simple rhyming story in the Hello Reader! series is illustrated with warm, expressive illustrations showing an exuberant small girl and her African American family. Tisa Walker hates Monday when it is time to comb and braid her thick, wild hair. She hides and complains; her father and brother tease her gently; and then she fusses and grumbles as her mother rakes through all the knots ("By now Tisa was sure / to jump out of her skin"). Then her mother's fingers fly, and Tisa soon has 20 thick, beautiful braids. Hazel Rochman