Mr. Happy and Miss Grimm

When some of Mr. Happy's seeds float over from his garden to next-door neighbor Miss Grimm's bleak yard, she is angry. But a pair of giant sunflowers pushes their houses together, and friendship blossoms, along with a riotous collage garden. The text is unabashedly folktale binary (happy is good; sad is bad) with a touch of positive thinking; illustrations with a European sensibility lend subtlety.

On double-page spreads we see two contrasting lives. On one side is a newcomer to the neighborhood -- florid, portly, and bumptious, his companion a plump, smiling pig. His next-door neighbor, across the gutter, is pale, gaunt, and suspicious. Her companion is a goat. Mr. Happy is a keen gardener, and when some of his seeds float over to the bleak wasteland of Miss Grimm’s yard, she is angry. But a pair of giant sunflowers pushes their two houses together, and friendship blossoms, along with a riotous collage garden in fauvist colors. The text here is unabashedly folktale binary with a touch of positive thinking. Happy is good; sad is bad. If you want good luck, plant your own four-leaf clovers. The illustrations, European in their sensibility, lend a note of subtlety, suggesting in their colors and patterns that Mr. Happy also has room for growth and change and that Miss Grimm, transformed to Miss Bliss, has something valuable to bring to their relationship. sarah ellis