Summary from Goodreads:
A middle grade graphic novel about Marlene, a young girl who stops straightening her hair and embraces her natural curls.
Marlene loves three things: books, her cool Tía Ruby and hanging out with her best friend Camila. But according to her mother, Paola, the only thing she needs to focus on is school and "growing up." That means straightening her hair every weekend so she could have "presentable", "good hair".
But Marlene hates being in the salon and doesn't understand why her curls are not considered pretty by those around her. With a few hiccups, a dash of embarrassment, and the much-needed help of Camila and Tia Ruby—she slowly starts a journey to learn to appreciate and proudly wear her curly hair.
Review:
As someone with extraordinarily thick, curly hair, I had to read this….The cover alone drew my attention. I related to the main character on so many levels. I never had anyone force me to straighten my hair. However, until I was an adult, I never really felt like anyone understood how to cut, style, or work with my hair (including my mother, any person working in a salon I went to, or myself). Thankfully, over the course of the years, I’ve developed my own routine of products, salons, and styles. But, you’d think my hair was from outer space or something….
What made this book so heart-wrenching was that all (or most) of Marlene’s image problems were coming from her mother. Her mother was perpetuating the notion that curly and frizzy and natural was ugly because that was what she was taught. And again, while this might not have been something I got from my Mom, there are other lessons I did learn from the generation before that are just not true. Let’s face it. This new generation is a generation of more acceptance -more body positivity and less shaming. Or, I’m hopeful that’s the direction we are going in. And Frizzy did a good job of covering the differences in our generations.
If only we all had that fairy godmother character (Tia Ruby) though….Thank Goodness she was there to show Marlene the magic of leave-in conditioner. For those of us that don’t have curly hair aunt superheroes who can take us under their wings, I guess there are plenty of Youtube or TikTok tutorials? I’m also not sure it was entirely believable that the mother ended on such a good note…Don’t get me wrong. The ending was adorable. I might have gone “Awwww,” out loud, but I’m positive it would not gone that way in real life. While I’m glad it ended well for Marlene, the mom joining them was a tad over the top for me.
Still, all in all, I’m glad this book exists. I love the positive messages it shares bout different people and different types of hair. I also love what it says about generations learning the wrong thing sometimes and needing to un-learn those things. All in all, it was a very sweet, quick read. The art is fantastic. And I can see a lot of kids really liking this one. I give it an 8/10.
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