I gave this to my baby cousin. It turned out a complete success, everyone loves reading/singing the book to the little guy. Perhaps you will also love it.

Enjoy!

This title is an illustrated version of Pharrell Williams's hit song "Happy" (from the movie Despicable Me 2, as the book repeatedly reminds reader).

The illustrations are photographs of children dressing up, dancing around, etc. set among paper-cut backgrounds. The photographs are full of liveliness and fun, featuring children of various ages, sizes, hair styles, and skin tones. This level of diversity was lovely to see.

However, that doesn't make up for the book merely being the written song lyrics. Considering I'm not really a huge fan of the song to begin with, this book wasn't super appealing. For kids who love the song though, they might be far more interested in checking this book out.

A note from Williams at the end encourages children to go out and make others smile, which is a great message to share. ( )

Lots of pictures of very cute, very happy children. The text is just the song lyrics and they don't hold up well for reading out loud.

This book follows the lyrics to the song, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and contains a message at the end from Pharrell Williams himself. I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because the illustrations were actual pictures of children that blended well with the written text. For instance, one of the pages reads, "Here's why!" and the words are coming out of a megaphone that the girl is holding. I did not like this book because the words (lyrics) are hard to follow if you are not familiar with the song. There is also no plot to this book whatsoever. The words simply repeat "Because I'm happy!" followed by, "Clap along if you feel like..." In my opinion this book is simply promoting the song and movie in which it features (Despicable me 2), mentioned by Pharrell in the message at the end of the book. ( )

I liked this book for a couple of reasons. The first reason I like the book is because you need the illustrations in order to understand the story. For instance, when the author writes “It might seem crazy what I’m about to say” there is a photo of a boy whispering over to 3 young girls. The reader wouldn’t be able to understand the author writing without the illustration. Speaking of writing, the second reason I enjoyed this book was because the writing was the actual lyrics of the popular song. This is great for young students who are beginning to chorally read because the writing is patterned and engaging. The chorus “because I’m happy” engages young readers in the writing. The big message is to find your own happiness no matter what. ( )