When I Wrap My Hair

As a brown-skinned child stands in a fabric-filled store at the start of this artfully created picture book, an adult wearing a headwrap prepares to fold a yellow length around the child’s natural hair: “When I wrap my hair, I feel new, like a golden sunrise, sprinkling light across the clouds.” Next, pages show the child having their hair wrapped while sitting alongside a dot-pattered river abutted by plants and dense blades of grass: as “a ribbon of color washes over me... the past comes to carry me through ancient rivers that turn and tumble.” Art that evokes bright, flowing textiles also envisions Black elders as part of the changing fabric design, wearing robes and hair coverings of various types (“When I wrap, my roots run deep”). Earnest, celebratory text from Grant (My Fade Is Fresh) and flowing, intricately worked illustrations by Mohammed (Naming Ceremony), which suggest the feel of batik and tie-dye, draw connections between the child, their hair wrapped in the present, and “a thousand grandmothers all around me” who, crucially, “tell me I am beautiful.// They tell me I’m home.” Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette. Erin Murphy Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Christy Tugeau Ewers, CAT Agency. (Jan.)