It's True - Your Hair Grows 15 Kilometres a Year
Diana Lawrenson
Leigh Hobbs

Allen & Unwin 2004
88pp., pbk., 12.95
1741172725

The book has lots of different facts about human hair. For example, it tells you things like how they figured out how Napoleon died. His doctors thought it was cancer in his stomach that killed him but it was really because an enemy poisoned him with a semi-poison, only enough to make him sick. His servant gave him two different medicines to help him but they combined in his stomach to make a deadly poison that actually killed him. They could tell this from his hair.

There is also information about superstitions to do with hair. Did you know that a long time ago in Fiji the Chief of Namosi always killed a man when he had his hair cut. This was so that nothing evil would happen. This was not much fun for the man who was killed!

This book has a glossary and an index to help you understand the harder words and where to find particular facts. The cover is interesting although it is not highly colourful, mostly all one colour. The layout is good because it is not all masses of small print. There are bigger words for the titles of each interesting bit.

I enjoyed the book. It was really good information. It taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know and it was interesting to read. The illustrations in the book are funny but do not really help your understanding. They are just funny cartoons about the information.

I think it would appeal to both boys and girls. It is a book that can be read by both. I would recommend it to my friends. It was an enjoyable book. I think that children younger than 10 would not really understand what the book was about. I think that the book is suitable for ages 10 to 15.

By Alysha, 10, ACT

This is a fascinating book about your hair and how it grows. It tells you about its colour, why it is fine, frizzy or fair, how fast and how long it grows as well as other amazing things like being able to tell all about you from just one strand.

I was really interested in the parts about red hair and I am glad that I was not living in the 1500s or I would have been burned at the stake for being a witch! I showed my dad the chapter about being bald (he's a bit sensitive) and told him he could rub his scalp with a mixture of pig's fat, ashes of burnt bees, almond oil, lily root oil and wormwood, like they did in the 18th century. I think he thinks going bald is a sign of wisdom now.

The format of the book makes it just perfect for younger children wanting to learn because each section is in easy snippets and there are some way cool cartoons by Leigh Hobbs. I liked the glossary and the index because it meant that I could find the parts that I wanted to share with my family easily.

This is a great book for 8 year olds and over.

Ariana, 11, North Coast, NSW