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Long, ‘bear-brown’ hair looks awful when you don’t brush it. It may be “just her way,” but when the girl in this book continues to ignore the tangles in her hair, the mice begin to move in.
The first and second mouse don’t concern her because they remind her of fairytales. She treats them like friends. But as the mice begin to tell others about their new home, problems arise.
The girl grows hungry because she feeds the mice her lunch, and she begins to smell because the mice refuse to go into the bathwater. “It’s just our way”, they say.
She grows to miss her friends and the control she once had over her own life. The mice jokes wear her down, and she begins to lose sleep.
When her teacher makes her choose between bringing the mice or her best friend (her toy doll) to school, she says a polite goodbye to the mice and begins to brush her hair. The girl goes to school the next day with beautiful braids and bows in her hair. She is feeling confident about herself and she looks proud. The mice are not gone though; they make another appearance, and children will not be surprised to see where they are now!
The pencil illustrations are digitally colored. The story takes place in the summer and includes scenery from the girl’s tidy bedroom and her suburban school. Although the main character is a girl with long hair, the book does show boys and girls with shorter hair attempting to mimic her look.
While at work in the library, I have heard positive comments about this book from parents and grandparents. This story would also work well in a class setting when talking about hair care and hygiene.
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The Girl Who Wouldn't Brush Her Hair