The little girl in NOWHERE HAIR knows two things: Her mom's hair is not on her head anymore, so therefore it must be somewhere around the house. After searching the obvious places, the story reveals that her mother, although going through cancer treatment, is still silly, attentive, happy and yes, sometimes very tired and cranky. She learns that she didn't cause the cancer, can't catch it, and that Mommy still is very much up for the job of mothering. The book, written in rhyme, explains hats, scarves, wigs, going bald in public, and the idea of being nice to people who may look a little different than you. It ends with the idea that what is inside of us is far more important than how we look on the outside. For any parent or grandparent, NOWHERE HAIR offers a comfortable platform to explain something that is inherently very difficult.
Bio:
I love words. I cuddle with them. I like them. A lot. (Which is always two words, and not one.)
I’ve been a copywriter since graduating from Stanford in 1988. But that’s not who I am.
I have one child, a son, which means I am a mother while also being a wife. But that is not who I am. When Hans was just 13-months old and I was only 33, I found a strange pea-sized lump under my left armpit that changed everything. That was 10 years ago now. I'm not a huge fan of the word“survivor,” because that is not who I am. I mean, I am surviving. I just don’t like the label.
I drive an old German convertible sportscar, because life is short. I am in a 12-step recovery program for chronic school volunteerism. I live in Marin County, California. While being one of the most spectacularly beautiful places on earth, Marin is also the breast cancer capital of America. So I've learned to take the bad with the good. Ask me any day. Life is good.
Review:
An Amazing Children's Story That Softens The Topic of Cancer To A Child.
This story begins with a child who wonders where her mother's hair has gone. She looks in her purse, in the cookie jar, even under her mother's bed, but no hair. Then she thinks that her mother may have lent her hair to a matador, or a bird borrowed it for it's nest. Though the girl realizes that her mother is not as active as she once was, her mother's love for her never changes.
Their are many new things about her mother. One of the things she notices is the various hats and wigs her mother has to fit every mood. They help her attitude.
What gives this 32 page story life is the truth that just because we see someone with a bald head, or someone that looks different than ourselves, we should treat them for what they are on the inside and not what we see on the outside. A mother with cancer is no different than a mother without cancer to a child. A mother's love always stays the same, for though appearance may change, love is something that never will. This is a story highly recommended to aid the discussion of talking to a child about cancer.
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