my heart fills with happiness board book

We were lying in my bed, face to face, and prompted by the book’s final question, we started talking about the things that fill our hearts: cake, and sunlight, and hugs, and books. It was late afternoon and the west-facing window in my room was poured through with sunlight, as yellow as this book’s beautiful cover. I received an advanced copy of My Heart Fills With Happiness back in December when I’d been ill in bed for weeks, and I recall reading it with Iris one afternoon while we were home alone together.

“What fills YOUR heart with happiness?” the book asks as it ends. “This book is dedicated to the former Indian Residential School students and their families-may you find what you seek,” reads Smith’s dedication, and her text is a celebration of First Nations culture as well as those perfect moments of exuberant joy that might be noted as ordinary if they weren’t so extraordinary (and perhaps the key to happiness lies in knowing that distinction): when you see the face of someone you love, smell bannock baking in the oven (with a teapot in the illustration and oh, do I ever want to bake bannock now), when you’re dancing, singing, or holding the hand of someone you love. FebruMy Heart Fills With Happiness, by Monique Gray Smith and Julie FlettĪs the world’s biggest fan of Little You, the board book by Richard Van Camp and Julie Flett, I’m particularly excited about Flett’s latest work, My Heart Fills With Happiness, a board book written by Monique Gray Smith (whose novel, Tilly, was winner of the 2014 Burt Prize for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature).

My heart fills with happiness board book