 Hey Co-Friends! I'm Bianca Renee, and you're watching Bianca Renee Today, and today we're going to have a little story time with my friends here. This is Golden Graham, he's from the Arctic land of Costco, and y'all know Brianna Cheney, she's here again. She's from my last video about Barbies with curly hair. Now in that video I talk about how important it is to have this type of representation for kids growing up. We're going to stick to those same lines today, but this time we're going to talk about curly hair children's books. I am obsessed with these books. I never had any curly hair books growing up, so I'm so happy to see that these exist, and I just had to share them with you guys on my channel today. So when Brianna heard that I was going to be reading curly hair books, she got a little excited and asked to be in the video, so that's why she's here. The first book I want to talk about is Afro's Braids and Curls, ABC's for Curly Girls. This book right here is amazing. This was written and illustrated by Daniella J Lopez. She's actually a visual arts teacher, and she said that she created this book because she didn't really start to learn about her natural hair until she was an adult after she big chopped, which is a very common theme amongst black women. So now she wanted to create a book that would show off her natural texture at a young age so that maybe other young kids can see this and relate to their curls as kids instead of waiting until you're an adult. So this book is literally all about your ABC's. It's a different word for each letter of the alphabet. For example, A is for the afro that I wear like a crown. B is for the braids I wear that never make me frown. C is for the curls and coils that spring back into shape. D is for detangling. E is for ends. L is for logs. M is for massaging my scalp with conditioner or shampoo. These are important curly life lessons that these kids are going to start learning at a young age, and I just love this. This book is really good for kids of all ages. I mean, I'm not a kid and I'm still enjoying it, but if you can get this book from tallgirldanny.com, it's also available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, but I'm going to put all the links to all these books down below in the description box. The next book is called Don't Touch My Hair. This title alone, how we all can order or relate, how many times have someone touched your hair, maybe even grabbed your hair without even asking. Well, that's exactly what this book is dressing. This is by Cherie Miller. I'm just going to read this little author's note here in the back. It says, many people feel uncomfortable or disrespected when others touch their hair without permission, though Arya, the main character in the book, struggles specifically with people touching her hair in this book. This is also a story about personal boundaries and what I would like to be used as a tool to teach the importance of asking for permission first. I hope that after reading Don't Touch My Hair, children can learn the importance of asking permission and of not being afraid to say no and not being afraid to hear no too. So let me read you a couple pages of this beautiful book with such an important message. So here's Arya, her hair. She loves it up, down style. She doesn't care. But then she says, actually, everyone loves my hair too. When I walk down the street, I hear so many compliments. It's so big. How do you get it so fluffy? I wish I had hair like that. What does it feel like? It's great that people love my hair, but some love it so much they want to touch it. I don't like this. Now she's like literally running away from all these little hands that are trying to touch her hair. They are so curious about my hair that they try to touch it without even asking for permission. So then little Arya is going through it trying to hide from these people trying to touch her hair. She's hiding in bushes. She's trying to go underwater, but the mermaids want to touch her hair. The animals want to touch her hair in the jungle, and she's literally on the moon. And aliens are trying to touch her hair. So it's a really, really, really cute story that talks about an important topic that many people don't really take seriously or don't understand that is a problem. So yes, I mean, I understand. Our hair is very cool. It's big. It physically bounces. But this teaches how important it is to ask first before you just start grabbing people, especially ones you don't know. And it's usually strangers that want to touch your hair more than people you actually know. And that's just weird. So this is such a fun book that I know kids and adults can relate to. And it's a little important message that our kids should know going to school. So this is just one of Shreve Miller's books. She also wrote another book called Princess Hair. And this book talks about all the different types of hairstyles that we wear in the natural hair community. So it says all princesses wear crowns, but underneath their crowns, not all princesses have the same hair. So she talks about puffs, she talks about twist outs, dreadlocks, teeny weeny afros. Like she little hits on just about every black hair style that we have in here. And it's just a really fun illustrated book. The pictures are really cute. And another very educational book for young girls growing up. Both of these books are available on ShreveMiller.com. Once again, I'll put the links down below in the description box. You guys got to check these out. The next book I want to show you is called My Hair is Puffy and that's okay. This book was written and illustrated by Nicholas Smith. And this one goes a little bit deeper than just hair. It also kind of touches on diversity. So the main character here is Puffy. She is Princess Puffy. So this kid has a really big imagination. Then she talks about this other princess called Strawberry Plum Princess who has spider silk hair. So Puffy is looking at this princess' straight hair and then she decides she wants to try her hairstyle too. So then she asks her mom to press her hair. And she says maybe this was a bad idea. Then on the next page she says it came out nice though. I decide the silky hairstyle is okay. It's nice to have options. But then on the next page she says but then I thought about the queen. And then she asks her mom that has big natural hair. And I decided once and for all my massive Puffy hair is okay too. So this one is really cute showing her trying straight hair which we all have tried at some point. And then her understanding that her straight hair is pretty but her natural hair is pretty too. The story then continues with Puffy and her very diverse friends. I love this photo right here. It says Kim and I are best friends. And her friend Kim has long straight hair. This picture right here is low key representation of me and my best friend Cindy. If you guys have seen Cindy on Instagram she has long straight Rapunzel hair and then I have big Puffy curly hair. So this is pretty much just me and my best friend right here. But the artwork in this book is just beautiful. I love all the characters, all the different ethnicities of kids at her school. And it's just showing you all the different types of people in the world and that it's okay to accept people that look different than you. The author and illustrator of this book, Nicholas Smith, said he was inspired to create this book because of the very small percentage of books out there that have a story based around a character of color. This book is available on Amazon and also on his website, nicholas.art. I'll put the links below in the description box. This one is another great read. One more book that I want to mention. Unfortunately I couldn't get here in time. I ordered it too late. But it's called Sunny Days by Jessie Bird. This book isn't necessarily about having curly hair, but the main character, Martine, is a little girl with curly hair and a natural disaster does hit her neighborhood. So she spends the whole book trying to help everyone in her neighborhood get back on their feet. So it's a really sweet story that shows how one person, big or small, could really help people in their community just by being helpful, hopeful and creating a small yet positive impact in their community. The author, Jessie Bird, said the inspiration of this book was the fact that his family survived Hurricane Katrina and this book embodies the themes learned through that experience of resilience, hard work and the importance of a positive perspective, despite the unfair things that can happen to us in life. Sunny Days is available on jessiebcreative.com and also on Amazon and those links will be down below. So there you go. How amazing are all of these curly hair books? Make sure you guys leave me a comment, let me know what you think, what was your favorite if you plan on buying them yourself and I'd love to have some more recommendations. I know there are more books out there, whether they're curly hair related or have black authors or illustrators and if you know of any, please leave a comment down below so we can get some more recommendations for anyone that's looking for natural hair books or books with people of color. I'll make sure to always post them in my Instagram story. If you're not following me yet, I don't know what you're waiting for. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. I post two new videos every week, once on Friday and once on Sunday. Sunday I usually focus on actually doing your curly hair so if you are new to the curly hair world, need some curly hair product recommendations, I'm your girl. You also should follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat at Ms. Bianca Renee. I have a bunch of giveaways going on right now and you don't want to miss the next one. If you enjoyed this video or have curly kids or know someone that would like these books, give me a thumbs up and share this video with them so they know that these types of books and toys exist. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for watching Bianca Renee today.