Wonderful short stories that sharpen awareness, from a brilliantly gifted Syrian refugee Personified animals (snakes, wolves, sheep), natural things (a swamp, a lake, a rainbow, trees), mankind’s creations (trucks, swords, zeroes) are all characters in The Teeth of the Comb. They aspire, they plot, they hope, they destroy, they fail, they love. These wonderful small stories animate new realities and make us see our reality anew. Reading Alomar’s sly moral fables and sharp political allegories, the reader always sits up a little straighter, and a little wiser. Here is the title story: Some of the teeth of the comb were envious of the class differences that exist between humans. They strived desperately to increase their height, and, when they succeeded, began to look with disdain on their colleagues below. After a little while the comb’s owner felt a desire to comb his hair. But when he found the comb in this state he threw it in the garbage.

Set against the backdrop of Caribbean folklore, Lisa Stringfellow’s spellbinding middle grade debut tells of a grieving girl and a vengeful mermaid and will enchant readers who loved Kacen Callender’s Hurricane Child or Christian McKay Heidicker’s Scary Stories for Young Foxes. Ever since her mother’s death, Kela feels every bit as broken as the shards of glass, known as “mermaid’s tears,” that sparkle on the Caribbean beaches of St. Rita. So when Kela and her friend Lissy stumble across an ancient-looking comb in a coral cave, with all she’s already lost, Kela can’t help but bring home her very own found treasure. Far away, deep in the cold ocean, the mermaid Ophidia can feel that her comb has been taken. And despite her hatred of all humans, her magic requires that she make a bargain: the comb in exchange for a wish. But what Kela wants most is for her mother to be alive. And a wish that big will exact an even bigger price… Don’t miss the novel that Newbery-winning author Kelly Barnhill calls “one of the most promising works of fiction in a long time”!

The Comb surveys the wide spectrum of the subject from ancient cultures to the 20th century. The principal materials together with the combmaker's craft are described, up to and including the important plastics developed since the mid-19th century. There are brief descriptions of the decorative elements that further embellish combs, together with a comprehensive glossary of terms associated with the subject. The book elaborates on the use of combs as articles of grooming and dressing, on ornamental combs as costume accessories, and on combs which have had specific purposes at various points in history such as those used within a liturgical setting. A short section also refers to combs depicted in paintings and stained glass, on family shields and tombstones, and on ceramics and textiles. Global in content, the study illustrates the comb as a personal possession with the context of widely differing cultures. The author has drawn on the knowledge, expertise, and experience of other collectors and scholars which, together with the results from her own original research, form a wide-ranging reference book to fascinate and beguile anyone interested in the many facets of the subject.