My Heart Is Laughing
Dani thinks of herself as someone “who’s always happy.” But she isn’t this particular day, because she misses her best friend, Ella, who moved away, and two girls in her class, Vicky and Mickey, are being horrible to her. When Dani angrily throws food at them after they pinch her during lunch, it lands on her teacher by mistake. The teacher doesn’t know about the pinching and thinks Dani was misbehaving. Dani ends up running home in tears. Her dad is at first upset with Dani, but when he finds out what happened he drives her back to school, tells the teacher what was going on, and justice is served as Vicky and Mickey must apologize — a deeply satisfying moment for Dani and readers alike. A few elements of this child-centered book translated from the Swedish feel foreign, but the feelings are universal and spot on. Despite the kids who are picking on Dani, there is a brightness and lightness to the storytelling, with the girls’ mean behavior treated as a unique incident — it happens, it’s dealt with, and Dani is ready to move on. ©2014 Cooperative Children's Book Center
Illustrated by
Eva Eriksson
Translated by
Julia Marshall. Translated from the Swedish
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 7-9
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Bullying and Teasing
Fathers
Feelings/Emotions
School
Translated Books
Publisher:
Gecko
Publish Year: 2014
Pages: 119
ISBN: 9781877579523
CCBC Location: Fiction, Lagercrantz