Review by Booklist Review
What is happiness? For a brown-skinned little girl, it's the new day as she bounds out of bed, greeted by her friendly dog. A wide range of children experience the day's activities as they walk in the park, interact at the playground, meet new friends, leap into the pool, and decide on ice cream flavors. The juxtaposition of illustrated double panels contrasts challenging and familiar vocabulary words, such as the indignity of a skinned knee versus the happiness of a scab. The adorable children inhabit each page, accompanied at times by a few climbing ants, a self-sufficient cat, and a perching bird. At day's end comes sleep, and, finishing full circle, our same moppet awakens to a new day of playing at the park with her dog. South Korean illustrator Yum uses ink and watercolors to produce her culturally diverse children and the animals and landscapes. Sure to encourage little listeners to define their own contrasting words for daily events.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With this loose collection of turnabouts, Handy (Wild Things, for adults) and Yum (Lion Needs a Haircut) meditate on the way moments of disgrace, loss, and worry can resolve into something better. At book's start, a brown-skinned child side-eyes the sun while waking: "The slowness of two eyes opening." A page turn reveals the same child out of bed, greeted by two eager pups: "The happiness of a new day." On a verso page, a child sits on the ground, knees scraped and bloody: "The indignity of a cut." On the facing recto, admiring friends gather around: "The happiness of a scab." Feet are poised on a diving board ("The fear of leaping"); an instant later, the diving child is seen suspended in midair ("The happiness of having leapt"). Gently tinted spreads by Yum carry emotion and straightforward beauty, as in a portrait of a bird resting ("The stillness of a perch"), then taking wing ("The happiness of flight"). This work takes a place on the shelf of A Hole Is to Dig--style miscellanies as the collaborators trace how adverse experiences might be openings to learning and joy. Ages 5--8. Author's agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners. Illustrator's agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1--A meditation on keeping things in perspective. The simple, repetitive text frames a day with waking and sleeping but does not follow a linear story arc or particular characters through the middle. Rather, it shows different scenarios with children and animals experiencing a wide array of negative and neutral emotions, described with outstanding vocabulary choices (patience, nervousness, indignity, reluctance). Then Handy contrasts them with the happiness that occurs when one looks on the brighter side. In addition to the titular example, other scenarios include "the worry of looking. The happiness of finding" as a child loses her parent in a crowd, as well as "the divide of mine. The happiness of ours" as twins share a treat. Yum makes impeccable images, carefully and uncomplicatedly, with pencil and watercolor, bringing each moment to life, always adding a touch of humor. Children and families will laugh at "the effort of holding it in. The happiness of letting it go," with an image of a boy standing at the toilet. All of the scenarios, from enduring a fall and a scrape to getting out of the cold bath into a warm towel to starting a new school and then making friends, are relatable to children even from a young age. VERDICT A sweet, never sentimental book about finding happiness in small places, and perfect for lap-reading or story times.--Clara Hendricks, Cambridge P.L., MA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Happiness offsets harder feelings. A child with brown skin and puffy brown hair lies asleep. "The slowness of two eyes opening," reads the text; eyes open, the child rises in cheerful daylight to greetings from two dogs and "the happiness of a new day." Handy's exploration of emotions that proceed into happiness is a grab bag. It's nonlinear (can be opened anywhere); the multiracial cast of characters hold no especial connections with each other; and the prehappiness modes vary between moods and situations. "The fear of leaping. / The happiness of having leapt"--feet on a diving board, then a child excitedly suspended midair above the pool--juxtaposes negative and positive feelings in a fairly traditional manner. Readers will thrill to a spread about peeing and another about the critical difference between hearing no and saying no. However, stillness, distance, and self-sufficiency are pretty neutral; when a bird experiences "The stillness of a perch. / The happiness of flight," the stillness doesn't seem inferior, creating a question--what do these juxtapositions mean? Enter Yum's watercolor-and--colored-pencil illustrations, airy and light, with soft pencil shadings everywhere for comfort. "The self-sufficiency of a cat in the morning. / The happiness of a cat in the afternoon" is mystifying as a pairing of opposites, but Yum's pale sunlight and cooling shadows--first on a windowsill, then spilling over the blissful cat on the floor--override any conceptual confusion with beauty. A contemplative exploration, with illustrations that carry readers past puzzlement. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
