Rebecca Finds Happiness

This is a nice little book about a girl named Rebecca finding happiness. The concept that the author tries to deliver in this book is great, and would never fade. While I love the message of the book, the editing and illustrating of the book definitely need some extra work, and I am not sure if the format issue is because I am reading a NetGallery ebook. The main character need some more character design work, to really make it pop up. The lines are rigid too.

It is a nice, gentle story. I liked how the main character tried different ways to make herself happy. It reminds me of the book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?”, taking the positive moral and writing a story to go along with it. The format of the pages seem like the papers given to young children at school where they have to write a few sentences of a story and draw a picture at the top. The pictures also seemed like they were done by a student. If the pictures were done by a student, I am impressed. I have read some published works that were written and compiled by older elementary or junior high students that have the same feel and style to them. The colors and shading are pretty. Some information about the author and illustrator at the end of the book would have been helpful to write this review.

Rebecca Finds Happiness is a great example of how kindness is contagious. The author did a great job describing how happiness is longer lasting when it's internally driven than externally driven. I did find the ending of the story to be abrupt with the additional comment of the characters living happily ever after.

I was particularly interested in this title when I saw the illustrator has aspirations for art therapy, and found myself intrigued by the uses of color throughout the story. Rebecca looks for happiness through the typical methods we are enculturated to try: consumerism, hedonism, and success. However, she eventually discovers that rooting her identity in her work will not lead to happiness, but that selflessness might be the key. The ending felt a bit abrupt; I found myself wanting an illustration of the girls as adults.

This book is a cute and meaningful story with simple but beautiful illustrations. The lesson is one that is important for all children to hear. The knowledge that each of us is empowered to find our own happiness through service to and love of others is a great thing for all ages to take from this book.

This is an important little children’s book about finding happiness. Rebecca could not find happiness in anything she tried until she met Tara and observed how happy she was. Rebecca then thought about why Tara was happy, and even asked Tara about it. Rebecca tried a few of those things and noticed how making others happier by sharing and helping out would also make her happier. I think children and parents will benefit from reading this book and discussing it. Beautiful illustrations, too!

"Rebecca Finds Happiness" has a positive message to deliver but the delivery falls a bit short.

Rebecca is a very unhappy little girl. She tries to find happiness by asking for lots of new toys from her parents. She gets bored of them pretty quickly and discovers that toys do not equal happiness. She then thinks that if she does whatever she wants that will be the key to her happiness. She stays up all night eating mountains of candy. Yes, that should make her happy right? Alas, that too fails. All that does is make her feel sick and have a tummy ache the next morning. She is a pretty good dancer and decides to be the best in her ballet class. That too falls flat as sometimes the other ballerinas would dance much better. This makes Rebecca jealous and mad. Oh dear how can she attain happiness in her life? Will she ever be happy?

She meets a new girl at her school named Tara who seems to be the epitome of happiness. Rebecca, through interacting and observing how Tara acquires her happiness, finally discovers the magical, real secret. She learns from Tara that giving is much better than receiving and that acts of kindness and generosity are powerful tools to obtain long lasting happiness in your life. Happiness comes from within not from without.

I must admit that this book has so much potential but the characters are not developed strongly enough and the illustrations do little to drive and boost the storyline. The colour pallet is lovely but the size and expressiveness of the pictures lacks the punch to keep kids engaged, especially if you are sharing the book in a group situation. This book is like a kernel of corn.... the kernel is there but it didn't pop and it could have for sure.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This was a short, sweet tale which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's about a young girl who can't seem to be happy no matter what. She has toys and candy, but nothing she tries, not even dancing seems to make her happy except for the very short term; then she meets and befriends Tara who seems to be happy no matter what. In emulating Tara, Rebecca finds a way to be happy herself.

I liked the story and the positive and useful message from Gina Harris. I liked the easy style of the colorful illustrations by Hayley Anderson. I felt this could have stood to have been longer, but it's fine as it is and sends a good message. The illustrations were rather small, even when viewed on an iPad in Bluefire Reader. I could enlarge them by spreading a thumb and forefinger over each image, but it felt like they ought to be maximized to begin with when viewed in large format. it was the same in Adobe Digital Editions, and on my phone it was so small it made reading rally hard. Just FYI!

Those quibbles aside, I liked this story and I recommend it.

The art is nothing special (and actually looks a lot like something I drew in middle school for a Gifted & Talented program where you wrote, illustrated, and bound your own book...) and the story was flat. Spoiled unhappy blonde girl meets self-effacing black girl who is always happy because she's so kind and good. Unhappy blonde girl decides to start being less spoiled and more nice to people and then finds out that makes her happy. Trite and not compellingly written. Even my 3 year old wasn't interested in this story.