"Let's hear it for everything that makes you the amazing, awesome, inspiring kid that you are... Your curiosity and creativity. Your bravery and kindness. Your sense of humor and fun. Your ability to get up again when you get knocked down. Your way of helping others. Yeah--you are all that and more! You are every good thing that makes the world go round. So go ahead and show us your magnificence--all the things that make you, you."--

The barbershop is where the magic happens. Boys go in as lumps of clay and, with princely robes draped around their shoulders, a dab of cool shaving cream on their foreheads, and a slow, steady cut, they become royalty. That crisp yet subtle line makes boys sharper, more visible, more aware of every great thing that could happen to them when they look good: lesser grades turn into As; girls take notice; even a mother's hug gets a little tighter. Everyone...