Franny B. Kranny, There's a Bird in Your Hair! [Hardcover]

Harriet Lerner (Author), Susan Goldhor (Author), Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2001 | Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Franny B. Kranny's long, frizzy hair is big trouble. It ties itself in knots on the buttons of her dress and gets stuck in the refrigerator door! But Franny B. Kranny loves her hair. She refuses to cut it and is furious when she has to get a fancy new hairdo for a family reunion. Then a bird decides to make Franny B. Kranny's hair its home, and suddenly Franny B. Kranny starts to like her new hairdo....

Best-selling author and psychologist Harriet Lerner and her big sister, biologist Susan Goldhor, co-authored the children's book What's So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed?. They team up again here with this hilarious and heartfelt story about daring to be different. World-renowned British illustrator Helen Oxenbury brings Franny B. Kranny, her wild hair, and her unique family delightfully to life.

Children's Choice Award winner for 2002.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Franny B. Kranny marches to the beat of a different hairdresser. When her family encourages her to cut her long, frizzy, troublemaking red hair, she refuses outright. She loves her hair. And when, before the big family reunion, a hairdresser tries to tame her mop, piling it in a heap on top of her head, Franny seethes and schemes. But then something funny happens on the way home. A bird lands in Franny's hair, and she decides the fancy new hairdo isn't so bad after all. The snuggled-down bird presents some technical difficulties: getting into bed and taking a bath, for example. But when Franny turns out to be the hit of the family party, and her formerly disapproving parents and sister change their tune, this individualist does an about-face yet again!

Authors (and sisters) Harriet Lerner and Susan Goldhor previously teamed up on What's So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed?. In their latest endeavor, they create an appealing heroine and a thoroughly delightful, funny story that will have young readers everywhere daring to be different. World-renowned, award-winning illustrator Helen Oxenbury depicts with great humor the fiercely independent redhead, her mother (who has her own bizarre 'do), her prissy, sleek-haired sis, and the rest of the Kranny clan. (Ages 4 to 7) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Lerner and Goldhor, the sisters behind What's So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed? reunite for a well-trod tale of a girl who marches to her own drummer. Joining a rash of recent picture books about unruly hair, this volume also features a heroine who likes her locks. Despite occasional inconveniences (getting caught in refrigerator doors, making her schoolmates sneeze, etc.), "Franny B. Kranny loved her long, frizzy hair," and resolutely resists attempts to cut it. However, when she's carted off to be coiffed for a family reunion, the hairdresser piles her carrot-colored curls atop her head and, on the way home, a bird takes up residence there ("You look like a birdbrain!" says her sister). Naturally, contrary Franny insists on letting her feathered guest stay and, bracingly self-confident as ever, swans into the party, where she's soon basking in attention including that of a news crew. Oxenbury's humorous, cartoonish illustrations nail every detail, from the flashy Mrs. Kranny's perfect manicure to the contrast between free-spirited Franny and her goody-two-shoes sister. Ages 4-8.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060246839
• ISBN-13: 978-0060246839
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)