Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron Illustrated by Joe Cepeda

I did not know what to expect when I got this book. When I began reading I was confused by the format of the text. The text is set up so that there is a narrator and then another voice that responds to the narrator so it is like a conversation that is occurring within the text. This is a very interesting idea but as the reader at times it can get confusing because I don't know necessarily who is all in the conversation. It can also be hard to make sense of the text because it jumps around a lot and at times doesn't seem to make sense. The reason for this could be due to the use of grammatically incorrect words, like hisself and chile. The text is written how people would speak it which can cause children to believe it is okay to use those words when talking or writing. The use of grammatically incorrect words could be one of the reasons that this book might be considered controversial. Some parents would be upset if their child came home speaking like this because of a book they read in school. another reason that it is controversial is because it addresses the subject of nappy hair, which is a hair type that some people, especially in the African American community, have. I think that anything that has to deal with race in anyway can be considered controversial by some, especially since race and racism is still prevalent in our society. I would say that this book is not controversial and I would read it to my class. I think by choosing not to read a book like this you are choosing not to acknowledge racial an cultural differences between your students. By not acknowledging differences it makes the students ignorant and uniformed and can lead to teasing of the students that are "different."