“ Crown captures that extra bounce in your step as confidence crackles from the top of your freshly-shorn head down through your feet. Accompanied by layered paintings that bounce back the beat of the words like the sweetest of jazz riffs, here’s an ode to looking good and feeling great.” -Betsy Bird, NPR Book Concierge: Best Books of 2017

“With language so hot you expect the words to ignite the page, Derrick Barnes endows the boy at this book’s center with flash, strut, pizzazz and the pure unregulated pride of knowing you look like a million bucks. One of the best reads for young black boys in years, it should be in every library, media center, and, yes, barbershop.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review This book oozes with black cool and timely, much-needed black joy, using the unique and expansive experience of the barbershop to remind young boys that their inner lives have always mattered there. Praise for Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut: Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut is a high-spirited, engaging salute to the beautiful, raw, assured humanity of black boys and how they see themselves when they approve of their reflections in the mirror.Įducational resources for Crown can be found here. This rhythmic, read-aloud title is an unbridled celebration of the self-esteem, confidence, and swagger boys feel when they leave the barber’s chair-a tradition that places on their heads a figurative crown, beaming with jewels, that confirms their brilliance and worth and helps them not only love and accept themselves but also take a giant step toward caring how they present themselves to the world.

That crisp yet subtle line makes boys sharper, more visible, more aware of every great thing that could happen to them when they look good: lesser grades turn into As girls take notice even a mother’s hug gets a little tighter.

Boys go in as lumps of clay and, with princely robes draped around their shoulders, a dab of cool shaving cream on their foreheads, and a slow, steady cut, they become royalty. The barbershop is where the magic happens. Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers A Newbery Honor Book A Caldecott Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book An Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Book An Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book A Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Book Named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR, the Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Horn Book Magazine, the News & Observer, BookPage, Chicago Public Library, and more

Ode to a fresh cut