Written by Caroline L. Perry & illustrated by Sydney Hanson

You may think you see a seemingly cheerful, smiling rodent. But, you would be wrong! The quokka, an Australian marsupial, is much more complex than that. And, the main character of the this delightful picture book does his best to show a (seemingly) grumpy frog that truth through a variety of examples. Dropped his ice cream? He may look happy. But, nope, definitely not. Someone stepped on his tail? Nope, he’s not happy even though he’s smiling. And, people don’t seem to understand that they shouldn’t wake him up for selfies. He’s nocturnal, for goodness sake! Fortunately, he finds a newspaper with an article stating that quokkas are not, in fact, the happiest animals. Now, he’s happy! But, the grumpy from? That frown is just the way he looks and it doesn’t mean he feels that way. Wait, didn’t we just read a story like that?

This wonderfully hilarious picture book introduces a rather misunderstood Australian animal in a way that makes learning fun. Accompanying illustrations are somewhat cartoon like and so good! The text is very accessible, with a sentence or two per page and there is a very informative author’s note at the end that describes the quokka in more detail, including its vulnerable status as a species and what we can do to help it, including leaving it alone and not bothering it for a selfie like in the story! This would be a great book to share when teaching about conservation and boundaries with human-animal interactions. Highly recommended.