Happy Right Now

What can make a person happy? Thinking of what might be, looking toward what is coming next? Or focusing on what is going on in your life right now? We are accustomed to seeing self-help manuals for adults on bookstore and library shelves, but in Happy Right Now, readers are presented with a book about the nature of happiness that is written for primary-aged children.

A lively little girl with dark skin and fuzzy pony tails is busy about her days at school and at home, but, in the midst of it all, she is also considering something somewhat intangible.

I’ll be happy when I get a puppy, a unicorn, an ice cream sundae

and a castle with a friendly dragon. Or I can be happy right now.

She concludes that waiting for school to be over for a vacation break, for the weather to change, and for chores to be done to feel happy may be a less satisfactory way to deal with what life dishes out than finding the positive in one’s current situation.

But this glass-half-full approach will only deal with so much of what comes along.

What about when “happy right now” is a no-can-do?

When the troubles and sadness are too much, and

feeling my feelings is all I can do?

Like a long good-bye, or a puffy-eyed cry,

or slow sorrows with no good answers to “Why?”.

It is good to see a book acknowledging that the kinds of unhappy things that affect adults come into children’s lives, too, and that letting a smile be your umbrella isn’t always the answer. It suggests taking time out to think (and even meditate); to look around and see if someone else needs help; to learn something new, “draw a picture, bake a cake, talk it out, let it go”. In others words, give yourself time to let sad feelings be pondered, digested and turned into learning experiences.

Most of California author Julie Berry’s books are for older children, including The Passions of Dolssa, which was a Prinz Honor Book. Here, she has given readers a helpful prescription for young boys and girls for dealing with the ups and downs of life. The ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ lists have a lyrical tone to their composition (and the quotation above aside, the text is not in rhyme).

Illustrator Holly Hatam is an Ontario graphic artist, and her images of wide-eyed children with a variety of facial expressions leave no doubt as to the emotional arc of the story. The soft candy colours make for a soothing accompaniment to Berry’s writing. The book design has also included some appealing yellow endpapers sprinkled with Sharpie line drawings of “Things that make me HAPPY’, including pizza, birthdays, narwhals and rainbows.

Happy Right Now is a good discussion-starter for the classroom or a single reader.