Strangely, I've fallen a little in love with a children's fairy tale picture book series I didn't know existed a week ago, when it has in fact been around for over a decade.
That series is 'The Fairytale Hairdresser' by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard.I haven't read all the books yet, but it seems so cute, colourful, sparkly, girly, clever, funny, exciting, dynamic, fun and adventurous. And it's about a hairdresser!
Her name is Kittie Lacey, and she's very smart, calm, patient, nice, kind, resourceful, adaptable, cunning, and brave, for a seemingly ordinary hairdresser in a world where all the famous fairy tales (well, the ones that Disney would recognise, anyway) are set. No job is too daunting for her. And she has pink and purple hair! I want her hair!
I'd definitely recommend 'The Fairytale Hairdresser' to all girls, and boys and enbies, too.
The first book, 'The Fairytale Hairdresser and Rapunzel' (aka 'The Fairytale Hairdresser: Or How Rapunzel Got Her Prince!'), published in 2011, has Kittie Lacey doing a lot of fairy tale characters' hair... and then Rapunzel's, at the request of the evil tower witch, when the imprisoned girl's hair grows too much and out of control. It's filled the whole tower! But Kittie, nervous and overwhelmed about it as she is, is up to even this task. It's a full-day job and challenge, but she'll get there - maybe she'll actually find the girl at the end of all the hair!
Really, the 'Rapunzel' tale is the perfect way to start the titular Fairytale Hairdresser's adventures.
I don't like the ending to this one, though. This children's story still has Rapunzel falling in love at first sight and then immediately marrying a prince, because he's handsome, and the witch gets thrown in the same dungeon as two stereotypically "ugly" women who I can only assume are supposed to be Cinderella's stepsisters (is the stepmother dead?), and an apparently dead gingerbread man (WTF?).
Don't expect too much of a feminist mistresspiece (or hairpiece).
But it's so sweet and girly, and again, adventurous. The book makes the most out of its clever premise. There is more substance and likeability to it than first appearances suggest.
Adorable. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. To see how cool a heroine the hairdresser Kittie Lacey can be on other eclectic adventures.
For hairdressers and stylists are heroes, too. They deserve to be heroes in fairy tales and legends, too.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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