Aug 5, 2011 ARCHIVES | Entertainment | COLUMNS Kathleen Krull. Illustrated by Peter Malone
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic
ISBN 978-0439676403
$18.99
Reviewed by Abby McGanney Nolan
In her nonfiction for children, Kathleen Krull has charmingly chronicled more than 100 historical figures, from musicians and artists to politicians and pirates. With "Big Wig," Krull focuses on the top of one body part -- the human head -- and the many ways we've fashioned it through the ages. Covering not just wigs but all manner of haircuts and hairdos, the book is filled with surprising facts and equally amusing illustrations. For instance, Marie Antoinette and other women of Versailles wore their hair over tall wire forms containing a variety of objects, such as bird cages, dollhouses and model ships. Peter Malone's whimsical scenes take liberties (a tiny cannonball is shown being fired from the ship), but they provide wonderful visual references alongside their witty details. Among the highlights, Krull digs up the various ingredients people have put on their heads, from Julius Caesar, who used animal urine and leeches to cure baldness, to the 1970s punks, who used Kool-Aid powder to achieve their unnatural colors. Krull also features the crucial figures of hair fashion, such as former horse groomer Marcel Grateau, whose "Marcel wave" was popular for 50 years. And after reading about the ponytail cut that the Manchu government enforced in 17th-century China, young readers may appreciate anew the heady freedoms we have today.
-- Abby McGanney Nolan
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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