If You're Happy and You Know It

"If You're Happy and You Know It" is a favorite family song that all the Pretend children--Chelsea, Colby, and Carolina--learned in turn. Cadie just turned one and will be the next. However, we will have new verses for Cadie from this book. The little girl on the cover wants to show her happiness so she claps her hands in the appropriate place in the song. Uh oh. The small brown dog says you show your happiness by waving your tail, whisking your tail, and wagging your tail! Not if you have an insignificant tail, says the elephant, then you flap your ears. Oh no, says the alligator, you snap your teeth. It is curious that the alligator has words on some of his teeth, almost as if he ate something with wor....ds. The toucan, the gorilla, the kangeroo, the parrot, oh, definitely the hyena--all make happy sounds with various body parts. But as the little girl reminds them, they all "do your thing" to show happiness. Everyone agrees and they show happiness. Sound simple? But you haven't seen the illustrations. Wild! Bold! Fun! Colorful! A feast for the eyes! Children will love looking at this book! And if they make happy sounds with a different body part, that is just fine. Everyone is an individual here!

If you loved the " If your Happy and You Know It" song this is a really cute book that also helps children to hear rhyming words as well. It starts out with a little girl who is happy and to show it claps her hands. Well, along come other animals and their idea of how they show they are happy. The dog swirls, twirls, whisks and wags it's tail, the elephant who has a very thin tail decides it's his/her ears that shows by flapping & flopping. Then there is the crocodiles that snip, snap, & clip their teeth, followed by 2 toucans clicking, clacking, snip & snap their beaks. The gorilla beats his chest, the kangaroo jumps, bumps, pings, pong and bongs around, the blue macaw screeches, shrieks, shrills, screams, sceeches and yells and the hyena giggles, chortles, cackles, chuckle and titers. And in the end the little girl says If I am Happy and I know It - I can do my own thing, that's right all the animals say together. It's a cute book that is bright illustrated. I am not sure where the other reviewer says this is not a night time book because there is really nothing scary unless it's the crocodiles... but they are not drawn mean looking.... in my eyes. A very cute book that has my daugther acting out the actions with her stuffed animals.

This book is the most fun I've had with my kids in a while. It's a great story to get everybody together and upbeat, one the kids can even "play" in the car together. Be careful though, not a bedtime story!