A recent Saturday at my house: the nephew is tearing the front porch apart. Sawing, hammering, swearing, unable to get things to plug in. My sister and her boyfriend (swearing and telling everyone what to do) are there. The niece-in-law-to-be is there. My father (with his just worked on knee) is there, fuming because he could do it right. Where am I? Running and errand and hiding in the library for over an hour.
And even with a most enthusiastic child that was vocally enjoying themselves, that was that the best thing I have done in a while as I found a delightful book about a smile. And about so much more.
SmileRise: A very short poem by Bachar Samawi is a quick read, but there is much going on. Take your time while you are reading. Read the authors comments, introductions and more. The book starts out with the people and places that inspired the poem. Or should say, the smiles that inspired the poet. This is a personal touch to the state the author now calls home. Vermont. Then we have an artistic version of the poem, followed by a more traditional format of it.
The author did fool me with his inclusion of the bookstore I work at. I was trying to think what staff member would have been his inspiration. Turns out, the store was where customers shared smiles with him, and later his real inspiration was someone not in even from the town, but from a state over. (Nice for him, but boy did he miss out on some nice staff smiles! Maybe next time.) And because he lets you know where he found his smiles, you can take a smile road trip.
In other words, you could probably read this book three or four times and take something different away each time. There is complexity in the simplistic looking nature of SmileRise.
