Don't Smile (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798218932749)

Being a mother and a teacher, I sometimes find myself having to do a lot of work just to get my children and students to smile. This is a story about a little boy who does not want to smile for pictures. He likes the straight line of his mouth because it looks like the trunk of a tree, the body of a butterfly, and the stick of a lollipop. He starts to get defeated when the reader points out that the branches of the trees, the wings of a butterfly, and the candy of the lollipop are all curved lines like a smile. He finally thinks he came up with the best thing that is ALL straight lines, a book, but discovers that he loves books and that they make him smile. In the end, he realizes that it feels really good to smile. This book contains beautiful hand painted illustrations that go along with the engaging text.