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. [em]Author’s agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners. Illustrator’s agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary. (Mar.) [/em]