The Happiness of a Dog with a Ball in Its Mouth

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.)

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