Acacia longs for adventure beyond her tower's imprisoning walls, but all she gets are daily visits from Ma Gothel, a witch who uses Acacia's long, beautiful, braided twists as a climbing rope to reach the doorless tower room. Acacia's storybook doesn't have any adventuring princesses, so she adds "her own flair," altering the stories to suit herself--though nowhere does she find her own experience reflected. Acacia's storytelling voice catches the attention of a girl passing by in a homemade red cape, and soon the pair are swapping tales and plotting an escape. "Sure, there are big bad wolves" out there, but Acacia is undaunted. With a new, looser 'do and some help from her new pal Mahogany's sewing skills, Acacia is ready to outwit the witch and head off into the woods with her friend (who, in a sly wink to the reader, insists, "You've got to meet my G-ma . She loves a good story"). Digital art propels this bouncy twist on Rapunzel starring two young Black girls. Off-kilter angles and oversized heads bring energy to the illustrations, the girls' big googly eyeballs giving them a manic air softened by Acacia's rounded cheeks and amplified by Mahogany's unrepentant grin.

Acacia's neat, careful braids are the epitome of princessy tidiness, while her loosened hair is a glorious coily mass, and both styles are beautiful; Ma Gothel, however, is less creatively portrayed, with her harshly defined, stereotypical witchy features, but she nonetheless plays the villain well and is easy to root against. This would be an uncomplicated, apt choice for viewers who have big feelings about their hair or understand what it feels like not to see yourself reflected in stories; follow it up with Brown-Wood's other books such as This Hair Belong. -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.