Ormerod (the Miss Mouse books) and Gardiner (the Poppy and Max books) riff on a favorite children's song in what looks to be a surefire circle time favorite. An unnamed girl who brings to mind a blonde version of Gardiner's Poppy character spearheads the merriment. "One day a little girl felt happy. So she sang," begins the text. When the familiar song lyrics follow ("If you're happy and you know it, clap you hands"), eight members of the animal kingdom-fancifully rendered in buoyantly improbable colors and patterns-respond with his or her own version. "No, no, no," a patchwork puppy rejoins. "If you're happy and you know it, wave your tail-swirl, twirl!" Admitting to an unimpressive tail, a striped blue elephant suggests, "Flap your ears!" "Ridiculous!" claims a crocodile, "If you're happy and you know it, snap your teeth-snip, clip!" as he shows off a mouthful of triangular newspaper collage incisors. Gardiner varies the spreads, showcasing each animal to maximum effect: a hyena, in several spot illustrations, rolls with giggles, while a close-up of a gorilla plays up his chest-thumping girth ("boom! boom!"). The wrap-up line feels limp after the energetic lead-in; the preceding pages bubble with infectious glee. Ages 4-8. ( )

Cute rendition of the children's song "If You're Happy and You Know It". Great illustrations

This book is a good example of fantasy because it goes through a girls journey to learn new verses to the song "If you're happy and you know it," but the characters that teach her the other verses are animals making the book unrealistic.
Media: Mixed media
Age Apporpriateness: Primary

A little girl is so happy she has to clap to show it. The animals soon join in, showing her that there are different ways to show you are happy. The favourite in this household is the gorilla that beats its chest - BOOM BOOM - but the other animals featured include a crocodile, a toucan, a hyena and a kangaroo. Bright happy illustrations throughout. ( )

Age Appropriateness: Primary
Genre: Fantasy
Media: Mixed Media
Plot: A little girl is so happy she just has to sing and clap about it. Then, animals jump in with their ideas of how to express their happy emotion until they have quite the list of movements and sounds that will do the job.
Review: This story is very good for the younger primary grade levels especially because they could get up and do all the movements with each new animal presented. The characters do take on human characteristics because the animals are talking, which makes this book a good example of fantasy. ( )