I Am Happy!

This is a high energy, exuberant book with lots of action. I love that the animals are constantly moving; certainly they are happy playing than sitting around watching a screen! There is a note at the beginning of the book for adult readers, telling them to think with young children about what activities make them happy, and to use imagination as well to think about silly things that they can do. This is shown in the book as well, in scenes where the dog sits on a cloud or flies in space. I'm a big fan of books as spring boards to other activities, so this is well done.

I was hoping for more of a narrative flow, and perhaps some more concrete ideas about things that can make us happy, like helping others, but since I usually read middle grade, perhaps that is just expecting too much philosophy for a fun, quick title. It would have been fun if the text were in more formal verse, because this deserves to be a song.

Rosen and Starling also teamed up on I Am Hungry and I am Wriggly, so this is a great addition to those titles. There are plenty of books for young readers to use to deal with sad or difficult feelings, so it's nice to see something like this, Whipple's Enough Is... or Chapman's Looking for Happy that explore some of the more positive feelings that we should encourage in young readers.

I am Happy is an exploration of common activities that children can identify with that bring joy. Fans of Michael Rosen will like seeing the appearance of the illustrated animal characters from his previous books. The illustrations are upbeat and convey a sense of joyful movement as you would expect based on the title. The text is perfect for baby-Preschool age children to learn what the word happy means and see many examples. This would be great to read and then discuss with your child all the things that make them feel happy.