#BookReview of Hair Love by Matthew Cherry #atozchallenge

Our theme for this year's A-to-Z Blogging Challenge is BOOK REVIEWS.  We don't normally post book reviews but it was fun to have a chance to review some of the amazing books I've read in the last year.

C is for Hair Love by Matthew Cherry

My introduction to Hair Love was by the short film.  I watched this online and it was amazing!  Love love love it.

If you haven't yet watched it, do that now before reading more.  It's less than seven minutes long.

The story starts with a young girl waking up, which generally is a big no-no but it works for this story.  Today is an important day and she wants her hair to look just right.  Unfortunately, her father is the only one available to help her, and he doesn't know how to style her hair the way she wants.  He tries just pushing a cap on her head, which doesn't go over well.  When he makes an attempt to comb it, her hair fights back!

If this was a query, we'd have:
Protagonist – young girl
What she wants/stakes – to look just right for a very important appointment
What's stopping her – her father doesn't know how to style her hair the way she wants

Or conversely:
Protagonist – father of young girl
What he wants/stakes – to be on time for a very important appointment
What's stopping him – his daughter wants to look just right and he doesn't know how to do her hair the way she wants

The film has basically no dialogue, but the music and visual lets the viewer know that this is a very important day for both of the characters.  No, I won't tell you why.  You'll have to watch it yourself!  All the characters, including the very opinionated cat, have great facial expressions, and the film has some hysterically funny scenes.

Several weeks after I saw the film, I read that Blue Ivy Carter was selected to narrate the audio book.  No, I haven't read the audio book, but if you want to hear a short selection, there's a link on the Amazon page.

I checked out the book from my library.  The illustrations by Vashti Harrison are excellent.  I learned the girl's name is Zuri.  She has an active imagination, which is cute.  The story in the book is slightly different than the story in the film, which kept the book interesting to me because it wasn't just a book version of the film.

I enjoyed the book.  I'd rate it four stars.  The short film is amazing.  Five stars for that.

Did you watch the film?  Have you read this book?  What did you think?