When Your Llama Needs a Haircut

November 13, 2017
In this frisky companion to When Your Lion Needs a Bath and When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles, it’s school picture day and a llama’s unkempt mane needs help. The animal’s young owner chases down his pet, hoses it, and untangles its hair with a rake. In a sequence bound to earn giggles, the boy considers potential llama hairstyles, which Wiseman depicts in wry cartoons (“How about a Mohawk? That does look good! But who has an hour a day for styling?”). The llama’s expressions, which range from blank stares to total bewilderment, are worth their weight in llama wool. Ages 2–4. Author’s agent: Liza Voges, Eden Street Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary.

It's picture day, and everyone wants to look their best--including a very hairy llama.To prepare for picture day, an unnamed black boy must fix his pet llama's unruly hair. It turns out that making a llama photoworthy is no easy endeavor: after catching his llama and convincing him to get a haircut, the little boy must wash and detangle his pet's hair. Next, the pair must choose a hairstyle. After vacillating among choices ranging from a bowl cut to a mohawk, they settle on a "simple trim from nose to tail." When the llama still won't cooperate, the boy decides to take a different approach, leading to a twist ending. It is refreshing to see a black protagonist in a comedic story, and the combination of second-person narration and cartoonish illustrations proves witty and engaging. Adults will appreciate Hill's (When Your Lion Needs a Bath, 2017) numerous winks to parents, who may recognize parallels between cutting a llama's hair and caring for a toddler. However, the narrative is too advanced for the typical board-book-age reader. The conflict involves picture day, an occasion that will be unfamiliar to children who do not yet attend school. The ending falls flat, partly because it involves an abstract leap too complex for very young readers.Overall, a mismatch of story and format. (Board book. 3-5)

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April 15, 2018
Preschool A llama's unruly locks get some unwelcome attention when a young, brown-skinned boy attempts to tame them for picture day. Grass and flowers poke out of the llama's fluffy head, until the boy wrangles the fellow (much to his dismay) and gets to work. Written as a humorous instruction manual, the text offers step-by-step suggestions for washing (grab a hose), combing (a rake is best), and styling a llama's hair. A sequence of giggle-worthy pages imagines the llama with extreme hairdos, ranging from a perm to a mohawk, before the trim goes awry with silly results. A funny, energetic board book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)