Stephanie's Ponytail

Christine Linge is a past director of the Toronto & District Parent
Co-operative Preschool Corporation and a freelance writer.

Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko team up once again in Stephanie’s
Ponytail, with hilarious results that soften a caustic comment on human
nature. The heroine, Stephanie, asks her mother to put her hair in a
nice little ponytail, because “none of the kids in my class have a
ponytail.” She takes no notice when her classmates pronounce the style
“ugly ... very ugly.” However, when all the girls show up with
ponytails the next day, Stephanie calls them brainless copycats. The
following day she wears her hair in a ponytail on the side of her head;
it, too, is pronounced ugly; it, too, is copied the next day by all the
girls—and some boys. Daily the ponytails become more radical; daily
the crowd of copycats grows. Finally, Stephanie screams in exasperation
that the next day she will shave her head. In due course, all the
copycats come to school bald, but Stephanie arrives with a full head of
hair—in a nice little ponytail.

While Munsch’s goal as a storyteller is primarily to entertain
(Martchenko’s colorful illustrations, bursting with energy and
movement, are a worthy substitute for Munsch’s animated storytelling
style), it doesn’t hurt to remind children of the perils of blindly
following a crowd. Highly recommended.