Lili
Wen Dee Tan
Fat Fox Books
Less than 4% of the population has red hair. In children’s books however, the ratio appears to be somewhat higher. A few memorable characters that immediately spring to mind are Katie Morag, Pippi Longstocking, The Weasleys, Anne Shirley, Amelia Bedelia and Madeline. Now we have a newcomer to join them, young Lili. the main character in Wen Dee Tan’s thought provoking debut picture book.
Lili is endowed with a mop of fiery red hair. To her family this can be useful but her neighbours think otherwise; her red-hot hair causes damage to all manner of things including washing, animals, even articles of clothing being worn. Lili finds it difficult to make friends and is eventually ostracized by the village children in whose games her hair proves hazardous. But one day she comes upon a group of
children lost in the woods, rescues them from impending danger and then – a blazing beacon of light in the gathering darkness- leads them to safety.
Throughout the story Lili utters not a single word but she exhibits a whole gamut of emotions from anger to terror, and wistfulness to delight– and we, the readers are observers of some of her experiences.
In her brief text and powerful pictures the author/artist opens up a variety of possible interpretations, and ideas relating to inclusion and exclusion or prejudice for instance, yet equally leaves a lot of space for her readers – young and not so young – to exercise their own imagination. Certainly, this is a book that can be read on different levels depending on your age and experience.

What follows is a brief account of one occasion when I shared the book with a small group of four to seven year olds (S. M. L. Le. F)
Before reading we looked at the front cover.
L. (reads title) Lili – Hey, she’s got wild hair. Can we read it?
We read until the 3^rd spread…

F. She’s got really angry there – it’s enormous!
S. Fiery hair WOW! – awesome!

4^th spread
Le. Look! her mum’s cooking the supper.
L. And, and she’s keeping them warm there.

5^th 
S. Oh no, she’s burning the sheep … and that man’s hat … and all the washing. That person will be furious.

6^th

S. She’s buring the rope. See, it’s on fire.
M. Maybe she shouldn’t jump so high.
S. And his bum. Laughter
Le. She’s really angry again now. It’s so enormous.
F.  No she’s not, she’s sad. See her face.

7th
S. That’s cool – she’s getting that (pear) down with her hair ‘cos she couldn’t reach it.

8th

Le. Oooh! look what’s that? (me: what do you think?)
L.  A big black dog?
Le: A scary monster?
F.  No I think it’s a wolf, a really scary one.

9th
S.& M. Yeah, she’s burning that wolf now.
S:  He’s running away.
M: What, two tails has he got?

We read to the final spread…
S. Oh, now they’re friends; they’re toasting stuff.
F. They must be friends ‘cos she’s giving Lili one; I think they’re marshmallows.
Le and L. Read it again.

We do … and afterwards, I say,
I wonder what Lili might do about her fiery hair.
M. Well, she could go underwater.
S. No, it’d be really dark.
M. Well then, she could have a hose.
L.  A hose?
M. Or she could cut her hair maybe.
S.  No, then she’d be erm, bald.
F. And her mum would tell her off.
S. But at least she’d not be accidentally hurting people.

What about those children, there? (We’ve turned to the stone throwing spread)
S. They’re so cruel.
F. They’re bullying her. That’s not nice at all. They might hurt her…. She’s feeling really sad because she can’t play properly. … they’ve hurt her feelings probably.
S. And, it’s not her fault.
F. She needs a hug but someone might think they’d get hurt. I’m going to draw her.

The others decide to do likewise.