Acacia
JaNay Brown-Wood, author
JaNay Brown-Wood is a former early childhood professor and the author of several books for children, including Mahogany: A Little Red Riding Hood Tale, Grandma's Tiny House, and Imani's Moon. She also contributed to the poetry anthologies Thanku: Poems of Gratitude and No World Too Big. Much of JaNay's work is intended to celebrate casual diversity, primarily featuring Black characters. She lives in California.
Read more about JaNay.
John Joven, illustrator
John Joven is the illustrator of Mahogany: A Little Red Riding Hood Tale, The Plan for the Gingerbread House, and Preschool, Here I Come!. He grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, and studied graphic design at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He still lives there with his wife, Ana, and two children, Avril and Ian. When not illustrating, he enjoys spending quality time with his children, playing soccer with his friends, watching movies, and traveling.
Read more about John.
- Coming soon!
School Library Journal
A familiar fairy tale is amended to increase its inclusivity and relevance for a modern audience. Acacia, here a young Black girl, is trapped in a tower with only the witchy Ma Gothel for human contact. Unlike other Rapunzel tales, there is no heroic prince: instead, Mahogany—another young Black girl with wild bouncing curls and a red cape—passes by and climbs Acacia’s hair. The two storybook characters form a lovely friendship, and together they choreograph Acacia’s rescue. Brown-Wood smartly utilizes Rapunzel’s hair to bring attention to and foster meaningful discussion about natural hair: Acacia’s hair is even more beautiful in its textured, unbraided state, but she feels compelled to braid it for Ma Gothel’s benefit. Acacia’s eventual untwisting of her braids to thwart Ma Gothel sends a powerful message to young readers to take pride in their hair’s natural beauty and wear it however they like. Joven’s digitally rendered illustrations match the playful text, and uncluttered compositions leave space for the story’s larger themes of empowerment to take center stage. VERDICT Empowering revisions to the classic tale make this a great addition to classroom fairy-tale units. Recommended for most library collections.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
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 Belongs
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-368-6
Ages: 4–7
Page count: 32
11 x 81/2
Publication date: September 8, 2026



