Irene Latham is an excellent poet who lives in Alabama. Depending on how old you are, you may have met her when she visited our school a few years ago. Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship is her new collection of poetry for children. It is a collaboration between Latham (who is white) and another poet named Charles Waters (who is black). The book is based on a fictional setup in which both authors are 5th grade students working together on a poetry project. Their poems about topics such as hair, church, the beach, and dinnertime alternate, creating a sort of conversation about race. Also, worth mentioning, are the book's illustrations which, like the text, are a collaboration between two artists: Sean Qualls (who is black) and Selina Alko (who is white). In keeping with the book's subject matter, the illustrations are a clever mix of different materials such as paint, colored pencil, and collage.
I highly recommend this picture book to everyone. It is one of those books with the power to change the world for the better!
Mrs. N.
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