Director Andy T. Jones brings to life the verse and (seemingly Ezra Jack Keats-inspired) illustrations of writer Nonieqo Ramos and artist Keisha Morris in this adaptation of their 2021 children's book of the name name. Hair Story bids to be one of the various uplifting multicultural titles to follow in the once-controversial footsteps (or comb-teeth, as it were) of Carolivia Herron's Nappy Hair (1997).
Hair Story would be a great selection for teaching racial diversity with film for Pre-K or elementary school students. Public librarians putting together unique library programs focused on diversity and inclusion should also check out this resource.
A black girl and a Puerto Rican girl, both friends, have frizzy, afro-style hair that refuses to be tamed by straightening treatments and grueling visits to the salon. But rather than accepting stereotyped beauty roles, they learn to embrace their hair, and the culture it represents, in a hip-hop-ish rhyming narrative/soliloquy ("Fingers decide...the algorithm inside").
This actually just takes up the first seven minutes of the video; a sizable chunk afterward is devoted to a glossary of terms and a pantheon of Afro-American/Latinx celebrities/activists cited for their contribution to hair culture—everyone from Harriet Tubman to Frida Kahlo to Sandra Cisneros to Colin Kaepernick to the mother-daughter combination of Diana and Tracee Ellis Ross. Cross-demographic J library shelves should welcome the item as an addition to the Hair Club for Girls. Aud: P.