Everyone has a favorite relative. For Sarah Jean, it was her Uncle Jed.

Living in the segregated South of the 1920s, where most people were sharecroppers, Uncle Jed had to travel all over the county to cut his customers' hair. He lived for the day when he could open his very own barbershop. But it was a long time, and many setbacks--from five-year-old Sarah Jean's emergency operation to the bank failures of the Great Depression--before the joyful day when Uncle Jed opened his shiny new shop and twirled a now grown-up Sarah Jean around in the barber chair.

With James E. Ransome's richly colored paintings brimming with life, this is a stirring story of dreams long deferred and finally realized.

This book was recognised in the Picture Book category by the Black-Eyed Susan Award.

There are 40 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 1998 by Simon & Schuster Ltd .

Lesa Cline-Ransome is the author of many award-winning and critically acclaimed nonfiction books for young readers, including Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams ; My Story, My Dance: Robert Battle's Journey to Alvin Ailey ; and Before She Was Harriet . She is also the author of the novel Finding Langston , which received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award and five starred reviews . She lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Learn more at LesaClineRansome. com