This year, Tandem® has added over 80 brand new titles to our extensive collection of high quality children’s books. We’re excited to have so many new books to share with the families we serve! Among these beautiful new titles is Sharee Miller’s book Don’t Touch My Hair. Today on the Tandem blog, we’re happy to have Sharee share why it was important for her to write this story. Read all about this treasure of a book and find great tips for sharing it with the kids in your life!

I wrote Don’t Touch My Hair to teach kids, especially girls, it’s okay to stand up for yourself. This is something I am getting more comfortable doing now as an adult, but as young girls we are taught to be friendly and accommodating sometimes to the point of our own discomfort. I also feel this discomfort in other areas as a black woman. Hair is a very important in the black community, and recently, more and more women have been embracing their natural hair after years of chemically straightening our hair. I also made this transition in 2012. After this, I heard stories and even experienced first-hand people touching my hair without my permission. This garnered many reactions, but mostly anger and confusion. This was a boundary that was not obvious to some. Whether this attention was because they thought my hair was beautiful, new, or interesting it made me uncomfortable, and I was not alone. We all have personal boundaries, but we need to learn tools to express what we like and don’t like. I now have the tools to express how I feel, but as a kid I didn’t. I wanted to write a story to show kids how. 

In Don’t Touch My Hair, Aria deals with this issue. First, she hides, then she runs, but soon she finds her voice and tells everyone how she feels.  Aria works out her issue and finds a solution in a fantastical world that addresses this topic in a fun way. These are issues to discuss with your kids. How did this story make you feel? Has there ever been a time when you felt like people weren’t respecting your boundaries? Have you ever made someone unhappy by doing something they didn’t like? Don’t Touch My Hair is a great tool for parents 

or teachers to start a conversation about personal boundaries, expressing your feelings, and respecting other cultures. These are important subjects that will help your children grow into more empathetic adults.

When reading Don’t Touch My Hair to a child, I love to engage them in a call and response where they read the word bubbles and I read the narration. They become both the admiring crowd and Aria’s voice. I think it helps connect them more to the story, and they love getting to yell “Don’t Touch My Hair!” at the end. It is also great for the child to practice saying the unwanted action they don’t like and why they don’t like it.

To find more of Sharee’s work, you can follow her on Instagram and Twitter as @coilyandcute or visit her website. Click our Amazon Affiliate link to purchase copies of her beautiful book for your school or home library. When you do, a portion of your purchase will be donated to Tandem, enabling us to buy even more books for children to enjoy!