Franny B. Kranny, There's a Bird in Your Hair

Lerner, Harriet and Susan Goldhor. Franny B. Kranny, There's a Bird in Your Hair. Illus. Helen Oxenbury. Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.

Franny's wild frizzy hair gets her into a lot of trouble - with her mom and kids on the bus and even the refrigerator door - but Franny loves her hair and refuses to cut it for the family reunion. When a bird makes its home in her new hairstyle, Franny is the star of the party. The detail in Helen Oxenbury's colourful cartoon-like drawings brings the humor and emotion of the story to life. The illustrations are expressive and communicative enough to stand on their own as a narrative, but the text is playful well-written and this picture book is a pleasing example of how text and image together can be more than the sum of their parts.