BEAUTY. NATURE. Hair!  

My Hair Grows Like a Tree is an experience for young girls to explore the beauty of nature in them. With 60+ pages of activities for readers to sketch, colour, create and explore the outdoors, the book also includes discussion questions for parents and teachers to do with readers. 

My Hair Grows Like a Tree has sold over 1000 copies and is presently published by Books of Africa and distributed in home schools and libraries across continents. 

My Hair Grows Like a Tree is available in the following locations:

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

All RIK Stores

The M Store
Piarco Int'l Airport

GRENADA

The House of Chocolate
Young Street, St. George's

Sunshine Stores

Maurice Bishop Int'l  Airport

Ganzee Shop

Atlantic News

UNITED STATES
BLACK & NOBEL
Philadelphia, PA

Nicholas Brooklyn
Brooklyn, New York

UNITED KINGDOM

Calabash Culture

Black History Studies

KENYA
Between The Lines
Village Market

UGANDA
Turn The Page
091 Second Floor South Wing Wandegeya Market
+256 Kampala, Uganda
+256 776 010990

REVIEWS

'One of the things we enjoyed most about the book was that it uses analogies to really get the kids thinking about their hair and their skin and how they can be related to the shapes, colors, textures of things present in nature. Tamika Phillip and digital artist Janessa McKell have done an excellent job creating a study guide and conversation starter for families.
...Families of all backgrounds can discuss the differences in their hair and the difference in the hair of others. For families with hair that grows straight, it is like a letter from a girl with different hair than they have that says “Your hair grows like this, but MY hair grows like this.” I would recommend this book for teachers who wish to discuss understanding of other cultures and ethnic traits in people of different backgrounds. - Socamom.com, USA

''It is like the Aten text of the 18th Dynasty in Kemet. It uses hair as a focus but explores many different aspects of nature, earth, trees and shapes. This book could be taught using math, science, arts and crafts, and all the other subjects in a student's schooldays.''
- Educator, New York

''I love the book and how it connects with nature.'' - Reader, Texas

 

“Tami, I dont understand your hair”. This question is the start of a seemingly short but deep journey into the world of a womans hair, what it means, or whether it should mean anything and its connection to the earth.

A book written for young girls and women, it tries to show the connection between the earth, the trees, the mountains, the sun, the rain; and our bodies and hair.

Tamika's short book is written in very easy to read verse. Its an informative tract as well as a guide for the reader to think more about hair. The questions themselves are written as poetry. It is the kind of poetry that is tranquil and non-distracting for a young reader.

Quite intriguing is its style. The cover of the book is at the back and to read you have to start from the back going to the front. Right to left, like Arabic. In a way it teaches us that a “hairstory” has history; that we must not look on things as they are but attempt to see where they start. So going backwards was sort of like going back in time.

It is well illustrated. Given that each page is a topic of sorts about hair, it is accompanied by an illustration. It is a given that any book for a young reader helps to have images to engage the visual understanding. While the illustrations go on to highlight historical names whose hair is drawn on as lessons; for example, Hatshepsut of Egypt; a lot of them are actually hairstyles. From Tamikas point of view, each hairstyle is a certain way to illustrate a connection; whether to the earth or the sun or the wind.

For all women who love their “enviri-nacho” and who would love their daughters and sisters and friends to understand that it is more than the looks, “My Hair Grows like a Tree” is a good book to read!

Tamika Phillip is a Trinidadian who has worked and lived in the United States, Jamaica, Italy, Ethiopia, London, Egypt and is presently living in Turkey. It wouldn't be illogical to thus adduce that her book draws on all the women she has met and the meanings of their hair! –
Turn The Page, Uganda

 

Excerpt from Trinidad Guardian

The body positive perspective of Phillips book is very admirable as she deals with both the many different types of hair and ancestral heritage many women with naturally curly hair come from. 

One picture shows a girl whose hair is depicted as Africa and inside of the continent there are pictures of different women, both sculptures of women and women from different tribes.

Phillip asks the readers what they have in common with the women in the picture in an attempt to get girls to appreciate their cultural and historical ancestry. “Like trees, our hair grows from our roots.” – Trinidad Guardian

 

FOR WHOLESALE & DISTRIBUTION

Contact: Tamika Phillip                                Email: geneinus@gmail.com
Tel:      +1 473 415 1767

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