How I Sent My Hug Around the World

Tippi, a girl with cherry red braids and matching glasses, describes how her mother’s bad mood creates a chain reaction of epic proportions. When Mama is grouchy with Tippi’s brother, he pesters Tippi, who “grrrrouch[es]” at her father, and so on, leading a pair of skunk-sprayed songbirds to spread “ewwey-stewwey-cranky-with-youuey bad moods” around the world, even affecting extraterrestrials and “giant dragons from the sea.” Giving the matter some thought, Tippi reverses the looming global catastrophe by giving her mother a hug. Even when the characters are at their grumpiest, Balinese artist Gusmang’s bright, smudgy-textured illustrations suggest that better days aren’t far away; eventually, the hug spreads happiness among smiling citizens of “Argentina, Tanzania, and Indonesia,” fairy tale characters, and even a god in saffron robes giving a thumbs-up sign from his mountaintop perch. Tippi’s narration tends to be drawn-out and cloying (“Soon, I think, all living things in the whole universe will be so happy, you will see them hopping, and twirling, and leaping for stars!”), but Conrad’s story could spark conversations about how one individual can make an impact. Ages 4–8. (BookLife)