Hair Love Matthew Cherry Reviews Summary

Illustrations and Artwork

Pros:

• "The illustration is rich and captures your attention."
• "A well written story showing the relationship between a father and his child with beautifully done illustrations."
• "Loved the art work put into every page."
• "The illustrations are absolutely stunning and the story is beautiful."
• "The pictures are beautiful because Vashti Harrison is just so talented!"
• "The images are beautiful and bring the story to life in a way that is meaningful and powerful."
• "Fantastic artwork!"

Cons:

• "The corners of this hard back book was crinkled and creased."
• "I am in love with the book itself, but the book was delivered slightly damaged."
• "Unfortunately, the story can't stand alone without the illustrations."

Story and Message

Pros:

• "This is a beautiful book for a father and daughter to continue their foundation of growth in love."
• "A wonderful book for kids but also adults too."
• "With unwavering love and determination, Daddy navigates the intricacies of Zuri's hair, demonstrating his commitment to making her happy and embracing her natural beauty."
• "It's a celebration of diversity, empowerment, and the simple yet profound act of loving oneself just as we are."
• "Shows a strong bond between father and daughter."
• "A beautiful story of a father lovingly coming to his daughter's rescue."
• "What a precious, heart-stirring, and beautiful story."

Cons:

• "But reading the story to my 3 year old I have to change the words a bit."
• "The story is obsessed with perfection (perfect hairstyle, done just right) and outward beauty, natural hair style (afro) is deemed unacceptable."
• "The whole book is a little too heavily focused on perfection in appearance, while the short film has a lot more depth."
• "Although this book has adorable interactions between the father and daughter it seemed to be missing information about the mom who is not part of the story until the last page."
• "Got this from Imagination Library, read it once, and gave it away. It's just so meaningless."
• "I expected the book to be as poignant and touching as the short film... this is not the case."
• "I just wish it was only about hair love instead of what a great dad this girl has."

Representation and Empowerment

Pros:

• "Thank you for representing black family magic in this lovely book."
• "Every little Brown-skin girl deserves this. We NEED more books for our community."
• "I am so excited to possess a book that my daughter can relate to."
• "In a world where drugstores and popular beauty supply stores have limited beauty products geared towards caring for black hair/skin it is nice to read books appreciating black hair."
• "I purchased this for my classroom. I absolutely ADORE the representation."
• "This book is good for all children, regardless of their ethnicity, whose fathers often battle to beautify their daughters."
• "Great book that teaches young black girls and boys to love their natural hair."

Cons:

• "People really need to stop talking about curlier more coarse hair as bad hair. It natural and it's beautiful."
• "Someone told her that her natural hair was 'rowdy.'"
• "Is no one else concerned about the portrayal of the dad's attempt at styling her daughter's hair as an afro?"
• "I change the words on that page when I read it to her, because I don't want her to think that having a big, beautiful afro is embarrassing or unattractive or whatever is implied by that page."