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A01=Xaiver Michael Campbell
A12=Eugenie Fernandes
afros
Atlantic provinces
Author_Eugenie Fernandes
Author_Xaiver Michael Campbell
Award winning author and illustrator
believing in yourself
Black author
Black boy joy
Black characters
Black hair
Black illustrator
boys and men
Canada
Caribbean
Category=YBC
Category=YXD
Classroom
confidence
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
cultural wisdom
don't touch my hair
dreadlocks
Educational
eq_activity-picture-books
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_personal-social-topics
family life
Gift book
grandparents and grandchildren
Hair Love
hair texture
Hannukah
heroic masculinity
holidays
immigration and emigration
Jamaica
Jews and Judaism
LGBTQ+ characters
Maritimes
natural hair
Newfoundland
outport communities
patois
race-based bullying
racism
Read along
Read aloud
self-love
self-respect
standing up for yourself
two dads
West Indies

Product details

  • ISBN 9781773069388
  • Weight: 326g
  • Dimensions: 215 x 254mm
  • Publication Date: 16 Oct 2025
  • Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd ,Canada
  • Publication City/Country: CA
  • Product Form: Hardback
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When Lovie moves from Jamaica to Newfoundland, his classmates make fun of his single dreadlock. But with Grandma's help, Lovie learns to care for his hair — and himself.

Lovie never thought he looked different until he and his dads moved to Spruce Cove. Back in Jamaica, Grandma would tend Lovie’s curls with her special hair-taming grease, but no one in Spruce Cove can manage his hair. Over the summer, it dreads in just one spot, and Lovie is quite happy about his single dreadlock…until the kids at school make fun of him.

When Grandma arrives for Chanukah, she sees that Lovie is upset. She explains that dreading is what their hair type does in its natural state, and she encourages him to love the way his hair grows. So Lovie goes from wanting to hide away his dreadlock, to asking his grandma if she will make his whole head full of dreads! Grandma takes out her hair grease and gets to work, and the next day Lovie proudly walks into class with his dreadlocks, and newfound confidence.

Xaiver Campbell’s heartfelt story about finding the courage to be yourself and expressing your difference is beautifully complemented by the vibrant art of celebrated illustrator Eugenie Fernandes.


Key Text Features

dialogue

illustrations

 

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

XAIVER MICHAEL CAMPBELL, from Kingston, Jamaica, has lived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, for over a decade. His work has appeared in the Malahat Review, Riddle Fence and in the anthologies Us, Now and Best Canadian Stories 2024. He was nominated twice for the Journey Prize and named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. Xaiver co-authored Black Harbour: Slavery and the Forgotten Histories of Black People in Newfoundland and Labrador with Heather Barrett. A Single Dreadlock is Xaiver’s debut picture book. EUGENIE FERNANDES grew up painting with her father, a comic-book illustrator, and has become a celebrated artist in her own right, illustrating more than one hundred books and writing and illustrating twenty-five, including When Rabbit Was a Lion. Her illustrations for Earth Magic by Dionne Brand were nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award, and paintings from two of her books are in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Eugenie lives in Ontario.

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