My Head is Full of Colors

by Catherine Friend

Each morning when Maria wakes up, she finds her hair is full of colors, books, animals, or people

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Catherine Friend had what she calls a "boring" childhood, but she says that boring was just fine -- because it gave her more time to read. She read so much her parents had to set a "no-reading-at-the dinner-table" rule. She was slightly shy as a child, but enjoyed playing Beauty Parlor with her sister, taking family trips, and watching STAR TREK and TIME TUNNEL.

She studied Economics, but because of her love for books and stories, she eventually found herself drawn to writing. Since then, the author has written six children's books, including THE PERFECT NEST, a hilarious read-aloud illustrated by John Manders; and two books in Candlewick’s Brand New Readers series. She is also the author of the acclaimed adult memoir, HIT BY A FARM: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BARN. When it comes to her writing, Catherine Friend likes to try new things and seek new challenges -- but she always likes to write stories that make her laugh.


Catherine Friend lives on a small farm in southeastern Minnesota -- which inspired both THE PERFECT NEST and HIT BY A FARM. There, she raises sheep, goats, and llamas, and has an energetic border collie named Robin.

Reviews

[Sonu]

My daughter loves it. She keeps this book with her all the time. I think she can relate to it more.

[Kimberly]

I give this book a 4 star rating.

This book is about Maria and her hair issues. Each day for a week, her hair has different things on it. The first day it is colors and the last day it is people. At the end of the book, Maria has her hair back to normal and she misses all the things that were in her hair. The lesson Maria's mom teaches her is that everything that she can every dream up is already in her head. They don't have to be physical be there because they will always be in her head.

Ways to use this in a classroom
1) Journal about a bad hair day and things they might have in their head
2) Talk about finding their interest and hobbies
3) Research project about a topic of their choice

[Zoë]

Read kids books! Got this second hand a few years ago, and this is the first time I’ve read it.

[Lisa]

Maria wakes up several mornings- each morning her hair looks different- full of colors (Maria painted). Full of books (Maria read), full of animals (kind and friendly to animals), full of people - friendly to people. Then Maria is sad because she wakes up and her hair is a normal brown. Her Mom tells her that all that information is inside her head.

[Ona Marae]

Loved this children's book because instead of talking about diversity it simply presents a little girl who isn't white as the main character of a story. An awesome story, besides! I won't spoil it for you, but I bought three more copies for my friends' kids!

[Tara]

I didn't care for the art style or the story, so just an okay read.

[Emily Glomski]

This book is wonderful. It's about imagination and enjoying yourself for who you are.

[Chuchito]

Cuenta como libro según Goodreads, así que ahí está.

[Kay]

This is a cute book about how what we think about makes us who we are.

[Victoria Nesselroad]

This book is about a girl named Maria for days when she woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror there was always something different in her hair. It went from colors to, books to, animals and then to people. Then after all this happened her hair was back to normal and she was really sad. She wanted it all to come back. But her mom told her no matter what you look like in the mirror you still have all these things in your head.

What I would do with my class for this book is talk about how no matter what you look like or anything like that you can be good at anything.