Harry's reluctance to get a haircut leads to trouble in this cautionary tale from Vietnamese author/artist Khoa Le, as a pair of doves, mistaking his untidy head for a likely home, take up residence there and build a nest. Soon the doves have a family, and Harry finds himself exiled from singing class when his avian companions' noise gets to be too much for his teacher. When a tree begins to grow out of a seed in the doves' nest, and a whole flock of birds take up residence, the young boy has finally had enough, appealing to his mother, who finds the best solution for him, and for the tree.

Originally published in Switzerland as Noé l'ébouriffé, and translated into English by the San Rafael-based publisher Insight Editions, this appealing little confection of a picture-book reminded me a bit of David Small's classic, Imogen's Antlers, which also featured a child protagonist with something unexpected growing out of their head. Of course, in Harry's case the nest and tree are the result of his own refusal to groom properly, making The Boy With the Big Hair more of a didactic cautionary tale than Small's book. I enjoyed Khoa Le's story here, but it was her artwork that really appealed to me, with its vivid but subtle color palette, its cute (but not too cute) cartoon-style characters, and its general feeling of magic. My only complaint, and I felt the same way about Le's The Cloud Princess - the only other story I have read from this talented author/artist - was with the use of a holographic lenticular cover, which added very little in my opinion. Leaving that aside, this was a sweet story, one with gorgeous artwork, that I would recommend to anyone looking for tales about children who are reluctant to brush their hair and/or get haircuts, as well as to anyone who admires Khoa Le's artwork. ( )

silly story about not getting a hair cut, then a pair of birds move in, then a tree - and on and on, until a hair cut is the solution. ( )