"In her most famous spoken-word poem, award -winning author and poet Elizabeth Acevedo celebrates the beauty and meaning of natural Black hair, her words vibrantly illustrated by artist Andrea Pippins. This powerful book embraces all the complexities ofAfro-Latinidad-the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance."-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Interweaving a powerful message of self-love, an award-winning author and poet celebrates the beauty and meaning of natural Black hair through her most famous spoken-word poem brought to a lushly illustrated picture book form. 150,000 first printing. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations - (Baker & Taylor)

They tell me to “fix” my hair.

And by fix, they mean straighten, they mean whiten;

but how do you fix this shipwrecked

history of hair?

In her most famous spoken-word poem, author of the Pura Belpré-winning novel-in-verse The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad—the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance.

Paired with full-color illustrations by artist Andrea Pippins in a format that will appeal to fans of Mahogany L. Browne’s Black Girl Magic or Jason Reynolds’s For Everyone, this poem can now be read in a vibrant package, making it the ideal gift, treasure, or inspiration for readers of any age.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Acevedo's poem "Hair," which was written for a thesis in 2009 and went viral with her spoken-word performance in 2014, has now been beautifully adapted as a visual poem with the help of Pippins in Inheritance. In this small book, every square inch of every page is full of color and visual depictions of the poem's evocative lines. The palette in Pippins' illustrations—every shade of brown and warm terra-cotta earth tones—echoes the poem's sentiments. When Acevedo writes of hair strangling the air, the page seems to be swallowed by curls. A Dominican hair salon, a person with straightened hair shining like the sun, two people coming together "like sugarcane" and creating babies with beautiful hair whom they will teach to love themselves are all literally and figuratively illustrated in a combination of traditional hand-drawn and digital paintings. The poem tackles generational trauma and posits the powerful question, "Did our ancestors imagine that their great-grandchildren would look like us? And would try to escape them how we do?" It closes with the empowering declaration that what was never broken cannot be fixed. This beautiful, inviting presentation of Acevedo's poem can be appreciated by readers with a wide range of ages and interests.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling, award-winning Acevedo got her start with poetry, and her many fans will be eager for this new presentation of one of her most beloved works. Grades 6-10. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.