posted on 20 Feb 2019

Mira’s Curly Hair by Maryam al Serkal, illustrated by Rebeca Luciani

Young Mira has lots and lots of beautiful hair but even though it’s so lovely, she really doesn’t like it. The problem? It’s curly – very, very curly. And what Mira most wants is flowing, straight locks just like her mother has.

So every day she spends time primping and preening and brushing her hair trying to get rid of the curls. She tries every trick in the book – she pulls it, she stands on her head, she gets hold of big, heavy books and tries to flatten out her curls - but nothing will work.

All Mira can do is watch her mother brush her long, smooth hair and wish that it was hers.

Then one day Mira and her mother go out for a walk and spits and spots of rain start to fall from the cloudy sky. Soon it’s raining hard and they have to find shelter until the storm as passed. As the rain falls Mira starts to notice something remarkable – her mother’s hair is starting to curl in the damp atmosphere and soon she has even more curls than Mira herself! And that’s when the young girl realises that the curls aren’t horrible at all – they are beautiful.

“From that day on, curls were the only way Mira and her Mama wore their hair every day.”

This is a gentle, lovely little story that picks up on just how important hair styles are to young children and the stunning artwork of Rebeca Luciani makes this book a sensuous experience. What I especially like is the way the illustrations give us so many different perspectives and angles on Mira’s life. We see her from a distance, we get close up, we get point-of-view angles – we zoom in and we zoom out - and all this happens in a kaleidoscope of fabulous colours that are, by turns, rich and deep, zesty and acidic but always vibrant.

The publisher, Lantana Publishing, make a specialism of these high quality children’s story books and, for my money, they are very special indeed. Although the narrative is very simple, it tells a universal truth about children and you’ll never want to get rid of books like this – they are works of art.

 

Terry Potter

February 2019

( Click on any image below to view them in a slide show format)