Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship

Didn’t Work as an Audiobook Audiobook Review: This will sound completely silly to someone who has the book in front of them. When I make a review of a book chosen at one of my favorite book review sites, I don't ever look at the book's description or read other people's reviews before I read it. I want my opinion to be unbiased and my own. Also, typically, I review so many books that it usually takes me some time to get to any one particular book. Therefore, I often remember or know nothing about a book before I start reading except for the cover and the title. That was so when I approached this audiobook. As I listened to it, for some reason, I thought it shared young children's thoughts on race—real children—not the poems of adult black and white poets. I don't know if that was what they were striving for, but that's what I thought it was! If it had been that, this book would have been an interesting view on race by those who are in the early stages of grappling with what that means. But, as it is not, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. These poems are very simple and only scratched the surface of what racial differences mean and how experiences of the races differ, even for those of a young age. I did receive this as an audiobook, and I wonder if it would have made more sense as a book instead of just something to listen to. While I applaud the efforts of the authors to make a statement and perhaps foster discussion about race in families, as an audiobook, it fell flat, and as a book meant for younger readers, it didn't quite feel like it touched on enough of the complex topics of race that it should have. I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

I only read the sample to prove to my husband that the must have a point...The book comes off a bit offensive... I'll pass on this book in my young daughter life.