Kid Konnection: This Is What Happy Looks Like
When movie star and teen heartthrob Graham Larkin emails his pet sitter, he gets the email address wrong and sends it to seventeen year old Ellie O’Neill instead. She doesn’t realize who the email is from but she’s concerned about his pet so she responds, letting him know he sent it to her by mistake. They strike up a friendly email correspondence so when Graham has the chance to suggest the location for a movie shoot he suggests the small town where Ellie lives.
Things don’t turn out the way Graham planned, though. It seems that others want to keep him and Ellie apart and Ellie is very disturbed by the media attention that follows Graham everywhere he goes. Their worlds just might be too different for them to have any kind of future.
I thought This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith was absolutely delightful! The story is somewhat predictable, but it’s told with such heart and emotion that it just didn’t matter. The point of view alternates between Ellie and Graham so readers get both sides of the story and can empathize with both characters.
This book is sweet and romantic enough for older YA readers but clean and innocent enough for younger ones. I appreciated the fact that it showed being famous isn’t always as wonderful as people imagine it to be. I do think this book will appeal to female readers more than males but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to either.
I listened to the audio version of This Is What Happy Looks Like. It’s narrated by Andrew Sweeney and Marcie Millard and they both do an outstanding job – they were Graham and Ellie to me. The book lasts approximately eight and half hours but I wanted it to last longer.
For more children’s books reviews, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.
This does sound like a sweet story Kathy.
Sounds like a winner. I like that it shows the down side of fame.
Sounds wonderful! I think my daughter would enjoy it. It’s hard to find clean YA these days.
This sounds like a lovely read🙂 I think my daughter would enjoy it, thanks!
I have to read her other book cos the library has it
This sounds like one I should put on the shelf for when MY kids are a little older.
gReat review, Kathy. I didn’t realize audiobooks were popular in this genre as well.
This book sounds great!
I agree – if a book is enjoyable, predictable doesn’t matter!
Sounds way cute. Great review.
I’m glad the audio was so enjoyable. I almost bought the audio but then I saw there were email exchanges in the story and sometimes that doesn’t translate well to audio. Sounds like it’s a non-issue though! I’ve read a little of the book and it seems like such a cute read.
This one is tentatively on my list to read. It is set in Maine, right? I love books set in northern New England, even YA ones, which I tend to avoid. Excellent review, you convinced me!🙂
Yes, it is set in Maine.
Sounds like one that Booking Daughter might like.
This looks so sweet. Since I am in a sweet kind of mood I may have to put this on my wish list.
Sounds adorable. I love the way they initially meet!