Smile / Cry: Happy or Sad, Wailing or Glad - How Do You Feel Today?

A fun, flip-over picture book for children that reads from both front and back. Smile Cry is an innovative picture book for young kids, showcasing the full emotional range of their formative years. Readers’ follow three adorable characters - piglet, bunny and cat - as they react emotionally to a variety of events and circumstances from everyday life. From an ’ate all the pies’ smile to an ’ice-cream plopping down cry’; from a ’cosy under blanket smile’ to a ’need a band-aid quick cry’, children will empathize with the tear-jerking calamity of a popped balloon or lost toy, or feel the smiley warmth of a being tickled. It’s the little things that touch the hearts of children the most, and Smile Cry typifies both the small joys and challenges that are the essence of childhood. Younger kids will respond to the soft whimsical illustrations, while older readers will learn more about the range of their emotions - how it’s possible to cry with happiness and also smile with trepidation. The clever ’flip book’ format means that the ’Smile’ story reads from front to back, while the ’Cry’ story reads from back to front, with both delicious narratives meeting in the middle. A heartfelt picture book that will be treasured for years, Smile Cry is perfect for ages 3 and upwards.

Jess Racklyeft works with a medley of materials including watercolours, paints and digital bits and pieces. She was selected for Luerzer’s Archive 200 Best Illustrators of the World 2013/2014 and the Etsy Design Awards, and has been a finalist in the Kids’ Book Review Illustration Competition. Along with creating picture books, Jess works with Australian card companies, US-based agency Astound, and sells prints through markets and bookshops. She is involved in Illustrators Australia and writes for their magazine Outline. In her spare time, she creates paintings in conjunction with her young daughter.

Tania McCartney is an author, editor, reviewer and features writer. She has been writing professionally for over 25 years and has almost a thousand articles and reviews in print and online. Passionate about literacy, Tania founded the highly regarded children’s literature website Kids’ Book Review and the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, and is an ambassador for the Australian National Year of Reading 2012. She has spent many years presenting and speaking on reading, books and writing.

Her previous book with Tina Snerling was the bestselling An Aussie Year. Tania is also the author of the very successful Beijing Tai Tai. Described as ’The Eat, Pray, Love for mothers’, this is her account of the four years she spent living in China’s capital. Tania has also lived in Paris and London, and currently lives in Canberra with her husband and two kids, and a mountain of books.