Happy with Me - Hardcover

"All day long I'm me, but every night I don't have to be. I just open my favorite book, Look at the pictures, And before I know it, I'm dreaming," begins Belgian author/artist Timmers's bedtime adventure. The theme may be well worn, but the illustrations are imaginative and accomplished. The opening spread features large black type on the left; below, a silver dollar-size circle contains one element (in this case, a teddy bear) of the larger illustration on the right. Framed in white, a portrait shows the boy in bed with his book, sporting a red baseball cap. A matching red background done in thick, vigorous brushstrokes seems to billow like clouds from the bed, where the boy pulls a black-and-white-checked blanket to his chest. Successive spreads show the fellow transformed into various animals an elephant, a penguin, an octopus always sporting the red cap. "With eight long arms that wind around each other, I'd have as much fun as four kids together!" accompanies a painting of the octet of appendages busily undertaking as many activities. The next page shows the downside: his tentacles twist around him in a knot. After dreaming that he's a golden bird falling from the sky, the child wakes from his dream to "a brand new day. I think it's time for me to be... Me!" With a parting wink, the artist's final image shows a trail of yellow feathers following the boy across the room. Highly visual and plenty of fun. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. K-2. Drawing inspiration from his bedtime story, a young boy dreams about becoming each of the animals he reads about. In typical kid fashion, he embraces the idea of becoming, for example, "An octopus! With eight long arms that wind around each other, I'd have as much fun as four kids together! And think how much faster I could get everything done!" Then for every animal he comes up with a reason it wouldn't be as much fun as he thought. In this case, he envisions those eight long arms getting all twisted up, "and untying knots can be such a problem." Each animal is given two spreads, the first depicting the joys of being the animal, the second showing the down side. As the title indicates, the story ends with the boy's proclaiming he is happy just being himself, "At least until tonight." Timmers uses light and shadow to achieve great depth and dimension, and the brilliant colors will attract attention from across the room. As a follow-up, invite kids to write about or draw a picture of an animal they might like to become. Lauren Peterson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved