Children's Picture Books

Smile!

Written and Illustrated by: Leigh Hodgkinson
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Publication Date: December 2009
ISBN: 978-0061852695
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: January 29, 2010

A wide eyed, freckle faced little girl named Sunny with pony tails stuck her head around a corner and looked at a cookie jar. Her mother said she couldn't have any cookies, not even "crumbs and little broken pieces" and the young girl was not in a very happy mood. Not at all. In fact, Sunny found that she was missing something and that something was a smile. Her smile was very important and Sunny just had to find it. She even started putting up posters offering "1 humbug" as a reward. Smiling was one of Sunny's "favorite hobbies." She could smile in any kind of weather and losing her smile was a crisis.

Her dad told her to try to remember where she "last saw it." Of course that was a silly statement. She looked under the bed. There was a ton of junk under there, but no smile. She decided to clean up her room in search of it because she was so "D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E!" She looked in Glittergill's fish tank. No smile there. She looked toward the twins to see if they took it. No smile there except for theirs. Sunny had the perfect smile and really needed to find it. She decided to keep on looking around the house. Would she ever find her special smile again?

This adorable story about Sunny's lost smile will give your little ones a case of the giggles. Every youngster, and adult for that matter, gets grumpy now and then and loses their special, unique smile. The simple artwork is very appealing and meshes well with this story. Wide eyed Sunny with her down turned smile will remind everyone of their occasionally moody youngsters. The little surprise twist at the end of the story is very cute and when you read this story to your little ones they will definitely be able to relate to it!

Quill says: Reading this book will make you smile!