Taking a Bath with the Dog and Other Things that Make Me Happy was published by Candlewick Press in 2007. It was written and illustrated by Scott Menchin.
Sweet Pea (young girl’s name) isn’t very happy at the beginning of the story and her mother asks her “What would make you happy?” Sweet Pea hasn’t a clue so she goes to various people, animals and even the sun asking them this question. After some time she realizes that there are many things that make her happy!
“What makes you happy?” is a pretty simple question. For children nowadays they might initially be stumped when asked this kind of question... and for them to think of a long list might take some time.
In Taking a Bath with the Dog (etc) Sweet Pea does a wonderful thing by going around interviewing people, animals and yes, the sun. By doing this she realizes almost anything can make you happy, whether it’s something that requires a lot of concentration or something that can be done without any effort.
I’m not sure why the author chose the phrase “Taking a Bath with the Dog” since this isn’t the main focus of the book. Also on a two page spread towards the end, there are tons of illustrations of what Sweet Pea likes to do and I have to admit that the baby brother looks unusually muscular (maybe Sweet Pea like feeding her baby brother steroids...).
Taking a Bath with the Dog (etc) is a well written book and really rams the sentence “What makes you happy?” into the head of the readers. I’m sure elementary school teacher can read this book to their students and have them brainstorm their own ideas.
