What's Wrong with My Hair? Book

Lionel is going to a party today, so he must do something about his bad hair. He finds a barber who has lots of crazy suggestions for hairstyles, from dandelion hair to octopus hair! Will Lionel find a style that suits him, and what will be the surprise ending?

A head-sized hole in each page allows children to try out Lionel's hairstyles for themselves, and the back cover has instructions for how to create your own hairstyle.

Children's Literature

A perplexed Lionel the lion looks out at us through an oval cut-out window on the board cover. We open the book to find him deciding to do something about his hair before a party today. On the next page he is at the barber, a giraffe, who assures him that he has come to the "right place." The heavy cardboard pages following all have the same oval cut-out window, with Lionel's wide-eyed face centered. On the succeeding pages, the barber proposes and demonstrates a series of possibilities depending on location: dandelion or bird's nest hair with Lionel out in a field; hair in waves or like an octopus if he is on the beach or in the water; spaghetti hair for a dinner party; ice cream hair at a fair. What Lionel ends up with makes him the star of the party. The final empty oval is an invitation for the reader to make his own "Lion Hair," while the back of the cover gives instructions on how to do it. Black outlines and bold colors of paint create lots of details along with the hair-dos. What little text there is appears in speech balloons, as in the giraffe's comments on his efforts and some responses from other small animal observers. It is a bit silly but fun. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz