Don't Touch My Hair! by Sharee Miller (review)

A little girl with hair that's "soft and bouncy, and grows up toward the sun like a flower" loves her hair, but she doesn't love that other people try to touch it without asking for permission. Having had enough, she tries to duck the attention by hiding underwater but encounters an interested mermaid and a handsy octopus ("Can I touch it?"); a trip to the jungle just exposes her to grabby monkeys; even an escape to a fantasized Mars brings her face to face with stalk-eyed aliens asking "How do you get it so big?" and reaching out to her helmet. A desert island solves the problem but leaves her lonely, so she returns home, lays down the law about the hair-touching thing, and lives peacefully with people who respect her terms. This followup to Miller's Princess Hair (BCCB 2/18) speaks directly to the perennial dilemma faced by many African Americans, especially women and girls, of being touched out of nowhere by other people, but it's also a good exploration of personal boundaries and respect in general. Miller's line and watercolor illustrations are simple in their drafting, but the repeated motif of outstretched hands (in one case, surrounding our beleaguered protagonist) impactfully conveys the cumulative insult. This will open lots of discussion possibilities, and it will help reinforce that age-old elementary school dictum "Hands to yourself." DS