Review by Frank Plowright

Darcy’s mother has moved the family to England away from her friends, and due to the difference in time zones when Darcy’s up and ready to go, they’re still in bed. Her mother’s solution to the boredom is that she heads out to pick up a few things from the shops, and in doing so Darcy stumbles on the place that sells happy feelings. They come in jars, each hosting a glowing small sphere as seen on the sample art.

It’s a neat idea, as are the matter of fact explanations Brittany Long Olsen supplies via one of the shop owners. People are drawn to the shop when feeling grumpy, and they’re able to leave having experienced a happy memory. It’s not necessarily theirs, but they experience it as if that’s the case.

With such an imaginatively cheery set-up, the conflict comes via the two elderly sisters who run the business. Flora is kindly, willing to see the best in people and has the job of actually collecting the memories sold in the shop. Frida’s grumpiness verges on perpetual anger, although as she’s also the person handling the finances, concerns about poor trading fall on her shoulders.

Darcy also has lessons to learn, especially that while happiness can be briefly boosted, longer term more effort is required than opening a jar, but Olsen ensures that it’s the fresh perspective Darcy brings that eventually solves a bigger problem.

An occasional view of the town is the only exception to Olsen applying a no-frills aesthetic to the art, which is also deliberately static, as if a succession of frozen moments matching those sold in The Happy Shop. It does the job, though, and there’ll be no confusing the young readers.

Upbeat and creative, The Happy Shop offers joyful reading with the messages well concealed.