Smile! by Leigh Hodgkinson - Revision history

Jill at 16:03, 3 March 2018

2018-03-03T16:03:46Z

Sue at 16:05, 23 November 2014

2014-11-23T16:05:25Z

Keith at 10:37, 9 September 2010

2010-09-09T10:37:06Z

Keith at 21:09, 4 February 2010

2010-02-04T21:09:17Z

Keith: 1 revision

2009-10-24T17:32:19Z

1 revision

Sue at 08:14, 23 April 2009

2009-04-23T08:14:15Z

New review

{{infobox
|title=Smile!
|author=Leigh Hodgkinson
|reviewer=Keith Dudhnath
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A delightful picture book about a little girl looking for her smile. ''Smile!'' is a sweet tale, beautifully illustrated. It's also a masterpiece of design, weaving its component parts together into a glorious whole. Highly recommended.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|format=Hardback
|pages=32
|publisher=Orchard
|date=April 2009
|isbn=978-1408301814
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408301814</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1408301822</amazonus>
}}

Sunny McCloud's mum tells her she can't have any more biscuits before tea. (By the way, Sunny isn't sulking). On a completely unrelated note, Sunny's smile has gone missing, so she hunts high and low throughout her house, hoping to find it. It's not under her bed, it's not down the back of the sofa, or in her pocket. She's offering a reward of one humbug, but the twins, Glittergills or Mr Honeycomb haven't seen it. What if it's lost in the big wide world?

''Smile!'' oozes happiness. It's a wonderfully quirky tale, presented in a fresh style - Leigh Hodgkinson's illustrations have the look of (perfect) drawings by children, with each page weaving the pictures and text together to create a glorious whole. She plays around with fonts and diagrams, mixes outline-only backgrounds with the colourful main characters, all in all creating a masterpiece of book design. It's not design for the sake of design - first and foremost it's a book to read - but it's a book to savour page by page, rather than romp through.

I suppose what I like best about ''Smile!'' is that it trusts its readers, regardless of how young they are. When you sit and overanalyse it, a hunt for a smile is a bizarre and abstract concept. Kids get the joke, and Leigh Hodgkinson knows they do. They get the joke of playing cards with a dog, and of wondering if a floor is made of jelly. It's not a surreal book - it's just a gentle tale of a search for happiness - but it approaches it from an oblique angle, and it really pays off.

Browsing Leigh Hodgkinson's website, [http://www.wonkybutton.com/ Wonkybutton.com], will give you a feel for her design style. It's a fun website to explore, but I don't think it's a patch on exploring her books. Have a quick look around there, and then Smile!

My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.

Leigh Hodgkinson's previous book, [[Colin and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodgkinson|Colin and the Wrong Shadow]], also involves an odd hunt, this time by a cat; it's great fun too. [[Don't Read This Book! by Jill Lewis and Deborah Allwright]] blends the text and illustrations together to a similar standard to ''Smile!'' It will also make you smile. Smile!

{{amazontext|amazon=1408301814}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=6373951}}

{{commenthead}}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{infobox
+{{infobox2
 |title=Smile!
 |author=Leigh Hodgkinson
@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 |date=April 2009
 |isbn=978-1408301814
-|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408301814</amazonuk>
+|aznuk=1408301814
-|amazonus=<amazonus>1408301822</amazonus>
+|aznus=1408301822
 |website=http://www.wonkybutton.com/
 }}

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 |buy=Yes
 |borrow=Yes
 |pages=32
 |publisher=Orchard
@@ Line 31: / Line 29: @@
 Leigh Hodgkinson's previous book, [[Colin and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodgkinson|Colin and the Wrong Shadow]], also involves an odd hunt, this time by a cat; it's great fun too. [[Don't Read This Book! by Jill Lewis and Deborah Allwright]] blends the text and illustrations together to a similar standard to ''Smile!'' It will also make you smile. Smile!
-{{amazontext|amazon=1408301814}}  {{waterstonestext|waterstones=6373951}}
+{{amazontext|amazon=1408301814}}
 {{commenthead}}

← Older revision	Revision as of 17:32, 24 October 2009
(No difference)