17 October 2011 GET HAPPY by Malachy Doyle and Caroline Uff, ill., Walker, June 2011, 28p., ISBN: 978-0-8027-2271-3

"Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends"

-- Lennon/McCartney

"Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feeling groovy"

-- Paul Simon

Everything seems pretty darned difficult these days.  There is such a terrible schism out in the world with widespread polarization, the economy in tatters, and people actually rooting for the failure of the President.  I got some really bad personal news yesterday, and it made me feel old; makes me think longingly of peers in the publishing and library biz who are younger and busy taking maternity leaves; makes me wish even more that I was back on the front side of the 24 years that I've spent in my farmhouse here.

But, instead, the house, like me, is getting old, so I've been busy repairing it.  That's why I was out rather early this morning, driving through dark and fog, hauling renovation debris to the Central Disposal site, then heading over to the building supply stores for more materials.  And so it was that I eventually found myself sitting in the truck in front of Target, fifteen minutes before the store opened, opening up a box of books that arrived the other day, hoping for something in the box to make me happy.

And there it was! A picture book with 51 words and a bunch of lively young characters of differing hues that offers instructions on how to get happy:

"Squabble less.

Share more!

Sniffle less.

Snuggle more!"

GET HAPPY is a book that is ideal for four-to-eight year-olds, but whose universal message about the means to achieving happiness could so easily make this one of those crossover books that goes viral with TV commentators talking about it and grownups buying it for one another as a present.  (This would make a great addition to the messages being shared by the Occupy Wall Street crowd.)

"Grumble less.

Giggle more!

Zone out less.

Zoom around more!"

Complementing Malachy Doyle's poetic text, Caroline Uff's dot-eyed characters repeatedly depict the related emotions so perfectly.

"I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels."

-- Jackson Browne

It's time folks. Think about making the world a happier place. It starts with me and you. Read this one and then find an audience to read it to.

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Richie Partington, MLIS
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