The jar of happiness

PreS-Gr 1-An uplifting picture book debut. A girl named Meg, after experimenting with numerous items and liquid-filled beakers, invents her own kind of happiness. It "taste[s] of chocolate ice cream, apple juice and sunshine" and smells like "warm cookies and the ocean." Once her concoction is made, she bottles it up and takes it with her wherever she goes. Her jar of happiness brings joy to anyone she visits; however, one day the jar goes missing. While Meg is understandably sad, she soon realizes that happiness is created by the people you surround yourself with and the activities you do. The soft, colorful illustrations allow the story to be told independently, and Burrows uses white space well to effectively convey the characters' moods. The illustrator shines in how she conveys Meg playing in numerous ways, including using puppets, painting, trying a science experiment, and even creating a stuffed animal band. All of these extension activities pair well with the story. VERDICT A first purchase for libraries looking to expand on books focusing on empathy.-Brooke Newberry, La Crosse Public Library, WI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A little girl loses her happiness...but just for a while. Curly-haired brunette Meg has her own secret recipe for happiness. She puts a dab of this and a spoonful of that into a jar and carries it with her everywhere, trailed by her faithful cat. It's her jar of happiness. It's red, yellow, and "all the other best colors." She uses the jar to cheer up her glum friend Zoe and to bring a smile to her grandmother, who has been feeling under the weather. And Meg's little brother, Leon, who gets on her nerves sometimes, also gets the benefit of the happiness jar...sometimes. One day, Meg's jar goes missing; she can't find it anywhere. Zoe arrives to cheer her up, and Oma gives her a big hug and lots of tickles. Leon goes all out, dressing as a monster and performing for his sister; he says that thinking happy thoughts can scare away "gloomy feelings, bad smells and even monsters." By the end of the day, Meg still hasn't found her jar, but she has found happiness and can sleep soundly. The final illustration puckishly shows the solution to the mystery of the missing jar of happiness. Burrows' gentle tale is gracefully told and well-pitched to a very young audience, with minimal text, clean compositions, and plenty of white space. Meg and her family are white, while Zoe has light-brown skin and straight, dark hair. Sweet and simple. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.