Happy to Be Nappy

Happy to Be Nappy, by Bell Hooks

I had the most difficult time looking for critical children's literature, even with the help of two librarians. Eventually, we found this book, and it is immediately easy to see why it is controversial -- the title speaks for itself. At first I didn't really understand why "nappy" could have been seen as controversial, but after I looked on urbandictionary.com (probably not the best source but still gave me answers) I discovered that nappy meant: tightly coiled/curled unaltered hair. Coiled hair in its natural state. This book tells the story of all the neat things that "nappy" hair can do, what it feels like, how flowy it can be, etc. What I got from this story, was that it is specifically directed at African American girls, and told them to be happy the way they are. It is a very uplifting story, calming and relaxing for little girls to read about. Other children could learn a lot from reading this story, but I think it would benefit African American girls much more. However, again on the other hand, it would teach children to accept all of their peers and classmates and all of their differences. The only aspect of this story that I saw to be controversial was the title. But at the same time, it shows pride if the author decided to display it openly on the cover. The theme of pride is present throughout the entire story, and all of the illustrations show characters who are clearly happy with the way that they look, and open about showing the readers to be proud for the same reasons.