Happyface by Stephen Emond

I didn't even know we had to do a book review this week ;_;

ANYWAY. this is a book i got from the Onehunga library, uhm. i think last year or the year before ? it caught my eye cuz the cover's bright yellow , has a smiley face :) and has half a dust cover - but when you remove it, it turns into a sad face, like :( that. it got me really curious, so obviously i got it. aaand i realize book reviews aren't really supposed to be life stories so i'll just get to it now ...

This is a fictional book about a teenage boy named .. something. i don't think the book says his name. so here, his name's Happyface. Happyface is a comic-book loving, dorky teenage boy. an tragedy then strikes his family, and so him and his drunkard of a mother move into a new area, where Happyface will also need to make new friends and settle. then, soon after arriving at his new high school, he meets a girl - Gretchen. he starts liking her. and through her, he starts meeting other new people, and that's when he pretty much decides that he will try to hide his past, he WILL be the new cool guy, and smile through everything that comes at him.

I can't really say anything more otherwise it'll give the story away.

I reaaally enjoyed this book, cuz it was written in Happyface's point of view as a journal. and on top of that, there's a truck load of drawings in it as well, so i found that pretty interesting. it's a total page turner, as the story just makes you want to know what happens next, and after that, and after that. before you know it you've gone through the whole book in one night ~
The story was pretty good, it was too linear or complicated. i also liked the characters - Happyface himself, because i can imagine what he's feeling, having to hide his broken past like that with a smile; and the random new friends he meets. it also gets pretty sad toward the last quarter so yeah.

I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a different read, particularly teenagers. it definitely sticks in your head after you read it, so i give it a 7.796 out of 1O.

:{D