When dad's hair took off by Jorg Muhle

This is a quirky, fast-paced recount of a child's recollection of the day their father's hair up and left his head. Short chunks of text in almost poetry-like verses accompany full-colour, comical illustrations that work just as hard as the text and visually show the journey of Dad's hair across the town. 'Dad's hair was sick of being brushed and combed. It was tired of hanging around on his head. It wanted a life of its own. It wanted to see the world. One day, it coiled itself and sprang'. As seen on the cover, which is brilliantly eye-catching, each hair jumps clear off his head. He tries to get it back, pleading, begging and grabbing at it, but out the window it goes. He stalks his own hair, over the hills and into town, humorously armed with a net and wearing a dressing gown.

It touches on his attachment to his hair, all their shared experiences and what he needs it for: 'If he was scared it stood on end. It went to the dentist with him'. The hair makes it into everyone's soup at the cafe, into the barber shop, a pond, the pet shop. Eventually at the zoo, the hair is washed down a drain into the sewerage system. 'From that day on, Dad was bald. His beard still grew. And all the other hair that nobody needs - in his ears, and nose, for example'. His hair sends him postcards and selfies from Hairizona and Mount Hairverest, then one day it unexpectedly returns in a hair shower. Simple sentences recount the action without emotion and the child narration works really well, adding this spectacular sense of this event being a thing of family mythology: 'I don't know the details. He doesn't like to talk about it'. Written by a German author and translated into English, this is a spectacularly funny read for sharing or a quick, enjoyable read for independent readers of all ages.

Themes: Humorous stories.

Nicole Nelson