Mixed-media artist and Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner Sean Qualls (John Was a Jazz Giant with Carole Boston Weatherford) makes his authorial debut with the middle-grade picture book Fros, Fades, and Braids, an ardent celebration of Black hair throughout history.
Qualls opens with an illustrated "Black Hair Style Guide," depicting Black people wearing different hair styles (Jheri curl, locs, cornrows) followed by a cinematic "featuring" list that includes items like curl activator and relaxers. Hair is important, Qualls says, because it is "the closest to heaven. And since it's all the way up there, some people consider their hair a crown." He begins with brief bios of hair-care pioneers Madam C.J. Walker, Annie Malone, and Garrett Morgan, then divides the book into six sections: "the conk," "the Afro," "the Jheri curl," "locs," "the fade," and "braids." Each chapter is further subdivided into topics including "Black Women with Straight Hair" and "The Natural Hair Movement."
Qualls's lyrical nonfiction demonstrates the many ways Black hair care, styles, and people have transformed the United States. He writes passionately about the role Black hair played in the advocacy for civil rights as a "powerful statement... that gave people permission to be themselves" and tells readers directly that "whatever you do with your do--do you." The author's acrylic paint, paper, colored pencil, and collage illustrations give the book the feel of a magazine composed entirely of gorgeous 1970s advertisements for Black hair. Although there is a lack of citation and further resources, big, bold letters, a newspaper font, short blocks of text, a casual tone, and illustrations of various hairstyles make Fros, Fades, and Braids highly approachable for young readers. --Kharissa Kenner, school media specialist, Churchill School and Center