Happy All Over (Emma Quay, ABC Books)

Happy All Over is exactly that. Emma Quay’s capacity to capture miniatures of joy, through both word and image, will bring a smile to even the most careworn and cynical faces. This celebration of happiness feels at once overflowing and yet spacious and calm. The words are sketched in such efficient poetry, and the airy brush-and-ink illustration technique, paired with wet tissue paper and digital manipulation, is so light and energetic. Quay brings a richness of imagery through concise phrases, describing snippets of happiness that are never predictable (‘Happy patter. Happy sounds. Bubbling ups, and upside-downs’). Each snippet is paired with an illustration of a scene or moment, from the very simple (‘a star’, ‘a lap’) to the quirkily specific (‘Finding there are five when you thought there were four’). Readers and pre-readers alike will share the irrepressible delight that marches through this book in the words; in the stocky, bouncy, diverse parade of characters relishing their worlds; and in the rainbow-coloured motif of teardrop shapes weaving throughout, which is incorporated into different objects in each page (necklaces, sprinkler droplets, balloons, flowers and leaves, ice creams and fairy lights). Happy All Over will certainly help ‘fill your cup’. (Indeed, small bright cups are another motif to look for in each spread.)

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor and writer, and a bookseller at the Hobart Bookshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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