Mophead

Marsh, Selina Tusitala

Notes
Summary: A graphic memoir of growing up Pasifika in New Zealand. At school, Selina is ridiculed for her big, frizzy hair. Kids call her 'mophead'. She ties her hair up this way and that way and tries to fit in. Until one day - Sam Hunt plays a role - Selina gives up the game. She decides to let her hair out, to embrace her difference, to be wild! Selina takes us through special moments in her extraordinary life. She becomes one of the first Pasifika women to hold a PhD. She reads for the Queen of England and Samoan royalty. She meets Barack Obama. And then she is named the New Zealand Poet Laureate. She picks up her special tokotoko, and notices something. It has wild hair coming out the end. It looks like a mop. A kid on the Waiheke ferry teases her about it. So she tells him a story...
New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults - Finalist, 2020.
Themes
Characters - Pacific.
Characters - Samoa.
Race and Culture - Racism.
Region - Pacific.
Social - Colonialism.
Writer - Pacific.
Personal - Leadership.
Personal - Creativity.
Location edition Bar Code due date
Aotearoa Section B021377