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63rd out of 127 books
—
298 voters
Happyface
by
Stephen Emond (Goodreads Author)
Enter Happyface's journal and get a peek into the life of a shy, artistic boy who decides to reinvent himself as a happy-go-lucky guy after he moves to a new town. See the world through his hilariously self-deprecating eyes as he learns to shed his comic-book-loving, computer-game playing ways. Join him as he makes new friends, tries to hide from his past, and ultimately l...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
March 1st 2010
by Little, Brown and Company
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Also posted at Guy Gone Geek. (I cannot believe that I will also be writing that line! Yay!)
Despite being a loyal partisan of social networking sites where you can post about every single update of your life, I still do keep a journal. I’ve been keeping it for about 4 years now and it is still far from being halfway filled. I guess that shows how rare I write on it. Here’s my journal next to Happyface’s journal:
[Are reviews with photos the new in-thing here in Goodreads? Apparently, yes.]
I feel...more
Despite being a loyal partisan of social networking sites where you can post about every single update of your life, I still do keep a journal. I’ve been keeping it for about 4 years now and it is still far from being halfway filled. I guess that shows how rare I write on it. Here’s my journal next to Happyface’s journal:
[Are reviews with photos the new in-thing here in Goodreads? Apparently, yes.]
I feel...more
Original post at One More Page
The bright yellow cover called me the moment I entered the YA section of Fully Booked Eastwood. It was bright, and the smiley made an interesting cover, and when I took a peek inside, I saw that it was a book...with drawings!
But what really convinced me to buy is when I removed the half dust jacket and saw this:
This certainly got me very, very curious. How can a book entitled "Happyface" have a sad face inside?
Happyface is the journal of a boy who has been christene...more
The bright yellow cover called me the moment I entered the YA section of Fully Booked Eastwood. It was bright, and the smiley made an interesting cover, and when I took a peek inside, I saw that it was a book...with drawings!
But what really convinced me to buy is when I removed the half dust jacket and saw this:
This certainly got me very, very curious. How can a book entitled "Happyface" have a sad face inside?
Happyface is the journal of a boy who has been christene...more
19 likes
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like
· see review
Gray skies are gonna clear up, Put on a happy face
As a self-proclaimed Pollyanna, I will be the first to admit that I would want to punch you in the face if you said this to me. What the hell is wrong with a little rain? Huh? You can't be happy if it rains? Fuck you.
You can have your gangnum style and complain about never ever ever ever getting back together again and umm... okay, that's my extent of youth culture... you guys like furbies again, right?
Happy face is old school teen angst. There a...more
As a self-proclaimed Pollyanna, I will be the first to admit that I would want to punch you in the face if you said this to me. What the hell is wrong with a little rain? Huh? You can't be happy if it rains? Fuck you.
You can have your gangnum style and complain about never ever ever ever getting back together again and umm... okay, that's my extent of youth culture... you guys like furbies again, right?
Happy face is old school teen angst. There a...more
actually my second time reading this book...and it was just as amazing as the first...even though you know what's coming...
there are a lot of different elements that come together so well to make this such a great book (the journal format, the doodles, etc)...but what i think is the strongest aspect is that the story is so real. it's not a hokey love story, there are no vampires or zombies, and the protagonist is horribly, horribly flawed. while not all of the readers can comprehend and connect...more
there are a lot of different elements that come together so well to make this such a great book (the journal format, the doodles, etc)...but what i think is the strongest aspect is that the story is so real. it's not a hokey love story, there are no vampires or zombies, and the protagonist is horribly, horribly flawed. while not all of the readers can comprehend and connect...more
2 likes
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like
· see review
Turn those frowns upside down, and remember to just keep swimming, I mean smiling!
I was first attracted to Happyface when I saw the bright yellow cover calling my name from the library shelf. I was like a moth to a smiling, yellow flame. When I opened it up to take a peak inside, I was rather surprised.
The journal format is nothing new when it comes to a coming-of-age Young Adult novel but Happyface takes this format to an entirely new level, as our main character Happyface expresses his life...more
I was first attracted to Happyface when I saw the bright yellow cover calling my name from the library shelf. I was like a moth to a smiling, yellow flame. When I opened it up to take a peak inside, I was rather surprised.
The journal format is nothing new when it comes to a coming-of-age Young Adult novel but Happyface takes this format to an entirely new level, as our main character Happyface expresses his life...more
What if you had the chance to start over, to be a new person…would you? This is exactly what happens to Happyface, he’s given the opportunity to start anew and make a name for himself in a new school with new friends. It doesn’t come without consequence and what results is his very own journey into who he truly is. And, I loved it.
The new rage in story telling it seems is this journal mixed with art as is seen in books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Artsy Fartsy. I’m a huge fan when it’s done rig...more
The new rage in story telling it seems is this journal mixed with art as is seen in books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Artsy Fartsy. I’m a huge fan when it’s done rig...more
This was such an awesome book! The narration that Happyface shares with the reader is somehow private but at the same time extremely inviting. The idea that this is a teenager's journal with words entwined with artwork leaves the reader feeling a sense of clear understanding for the universal struggles this young boy has to go through. At first this book felt very generic. An everyday kid lost in the shuffle of high school. But after getting to know Happyface and the real person underneath you r...more
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I hated this so much that I even wrote a list on the things I hated about it so I wouldn't forget. Let's see, let's see-ah. Happyface was whiny, confusing, with unrealistic and unrelatable characters, a weird format, not exactly as funny as it probably wanted to be, sloppy ending-shall I go on? The only reason I'm not giving it zero stars is, because, well, I don't give zero stars. The author must have a .1 percent potential for getting published or something, right?
Enter Happyface's journal an...more
Enter Happyface's journal an...more
This fictional black-and-white illustrated diary of a painfully awkward teen boy with underlying issues is touching and well-done. At the start, the narrator seems like an average lonely high school sophomore. He’s a gamer and comic book lover that also spends hours obsessing over the things his only female friend might be thinking. His parents drink a bit too much and his older brother is too cool to deal with him. Then an unknown tragedy strikes and he tells us he and his mom are living in a t...more
This is the diary of Happyface, a not-so-happy-as-everyone-thinks-he-is teenager. In the beginning he’s kind of quiet and awkward and spends most of his time with his sketchbook, drawing the world and his best friend Chloe (who is smart, beautiful, and unobtainable). Everything changes when Happyface’s parents split up and he and his mom end up living in a small apartment and Happyface goes to a new school. He has the chance to reinvent himself as someone else, and he starts right away – grinnin...more
I smiled when I read this book. It’s funny, cute, and I can totally relate to Happyface. My favorite part about the book was that I was actually reading his “diary” and all the pages had little doodles and stuff on it. I loved how I could see in the things that he wrote that he was a geeky class clown. I could almost actually say that I knew everything about Happyface because of the things he drew and the way he said things.
Okay, I loved Happyface. I could relate to him a lot because he’s just t...more
Okay, I loved Happyface. I could relate to him a lot because he’s just t...more
My two teen daughters, ages 15 and 19, liked this book more than I did, but that's probably testimony to its extremely authentic feel. While I thought the interminable and repetitive dwelling on trivial conversations and small slights was annoying, my teens were fascinated. This is how teens are - stuff like that is what the very fabric of life is made of.
Happyface does, of course, finally realize that his approach to friendship has had the effect of keeping everyone at arm's length, and his fri...more
Happyface does, of course, finally realize that his approach to friendship has had the effect of keeping everyone at arm's length, and his fri...more
People have their ups, there downs, their rises, their plummeting falls. Happy face was a artist, a friend and anti-social. Who would want more? I mean his best friend ( almost his girlfriend) was everything to him. His family problems like having drinking parents and overachieving brother was hard to top. Hard to forgot and fix. When he moved he thought he could abandon all those mistakes even his past. He became Happy Face the life of the party the cool guy that made you laugh. Everything seem...more
This is not like a normal book we are reading. NO, it's not a comic book neither. As a reader, we are reading someone's notebook with pictures are going along. Indeed, this is another book covers theme of love. A boy is recording every single moment of first with Chole and second after he moved to new town, Gretchen. The boy like most of boys wants to be with girls but he is somehow very shy. Comparing to Tobey in book When it happens, by Susane Colasanti. The boy has much more fun characteristi...more
Advanced Reader Copy
"Happyface," a shy, invisible, artistic sophomore in high school, attempts to reinvent himself after a family tragedy occurs. His parents divorce as a result, and Happyface moves with his mother and is enrolled in a new school. Here he paints a big smile on his face, stops doing his schoolwork, and becomes the class clown. For awhile it works. He becomes relatively popular, develops friendships, and hangs out with the girl of his dreams. Underneath his mask, however, he is st...more
"Happyface," a shy, invisible, artistic sophomore in high school, attempts to reinvent himself after a family tragedy occurs. His parents divorce as a result, and Happyface moves with his mother and is enrolled in a new school. Here he paints a big smile on his face, stops doing his schoolwork, and becomes the class clown. For awhile it works. He becomes relatively popular, develops friendships, and hangs out with the girl of his dreams. Underneath his mask, however, he is st...more
In tenth grade, Happyface moves to an apartment in a new town with his mother, goes to a new school, reinvents himself, makes new friends, and starts a new journal/sketchbook - two if you count the one he must keep in Mr. Molly's English class. Although his writing seems full of information, Happyface doesn't really reveal more about himself there than he does to the kids at his new school - including Gretchen, sisters Misty and Karma Moon, or Mike. Although his new persona, smiling, funny, posi...more
Erst einmal stach mit das Cover total ins Auge. Knallgelb kommt es daher mit einem riesen großen, lachenden Smiley, welchem ein Eckzahn fehlt. Das Lachen wirkt allerdings eher erzwungen und keineswegs hübsch oder ehrlich.
Öffnet man nun das Buch, findet man das Tagebuch von „Happyface“ vor. Jedoch nicht nur in Textform, nein, dieses Buch ist ein Comic-Roman! Jede Seite beinhaltet kleine und große Comic-Zeichnungen, die witzigerweise die Tagebucheinträge ergänzen. Welch geniale Idee!
Die Zeichunung...more
Öffnet man nun das Buch, findet man das Tagebuch von „Happyface“ vor. Jedoch nicht nur in Textform, nein, dieses Buch ist ein Comic-Roman! Jede Seite beinhaltet kleine und große Comic-Zeichnungen, die witzigerweise die Tagebucheinträge ergänzen. Welch geniale Idee!
Die Zeichunung...more
This book took me, beat me to a bloody emotional pulp, and left me on the side of the road.
Sometimes a book does that and it's great. Sometimes the book is Happyface and it's a really terrible time.
So our protagonist, known to us only as Happyface, moves with his mother away from his broken family into a different portion of the city after a family tragedy. He then treats everyone around him horribly, can't grasp the social cues necessary to fix the problem, and hits rock bottom. Without giving...more
Sometimes a book does that and it's great. Sometimes the book is Happyface and it's a really terrible time.
So our protagonist, known to us only as Happyface, moves with his mother away from his broken family into a different portion of the city after a family tragedy. He then treats everyone around him horribly, can't grasp the social cues necessary to fix the problem, and hits rock bottom. Without giving...more
I bought this book because my husband begged me to. He chose it for the cover.
When I first opened the book I didn't think I would like it at all and I was only going to read it for my dh's benefit. It's written in journal style with hand drawn pictures, notes, and emails/IM conversations. Once I got into the book the format worked well and really added to the story. It wouldn't have been the same without it.
The story is told from happyface's point of view. It was kind of nice to get into a guy'...more
When I first opened the book I didn't think I would like it at all and I was only going to read it for my dh's benefit. It's written in journal style with hand drawn pictures, notes, and emails/IM conversations. Once I got into the book the format worked well and really added to the story. It wouldn't have been the same without it.
The story is told from happyface's point of view. It was kind of nice to get into a guy'...more
This is a great mashup of teen angst. Happyface is an introverted, awkward, suffering sophomore. And his family life is a wreck: big brother is everything Happyface could never be, Mom and Dad are both alcoholic and splitting apart.
“Happyface” is the narrator’s personality makeover. He enters a new school with a mission to smile and joke away all his insecurities, and banish his family secrets to some faraway dungeon. The makeover works, somewhat, but Happyface’s problems run deeper than he fir...more
“Happyface” is the narrator’s personality makeover. He enters a new school with a mission to smile and joke away all his insecurities, and banish his family secrets to some faraway dungeon. The makeover works, somewhat, but Happyface’s problems run deeper than he fir...more
Inhalt
Ein unbeliebter Junge: Keine Freunde und vor allem keine Freundin, er ist ein Außenseiter. Doch als er mit seiner Mutter umzieht, verändert sich alles. Er will sich ändern und endlich etwas aus seinem Leben machen, das schwört er sich (und seinem Skizzenbuch). Er wird zu Happyface, doch ist er wirklich glücklich oder ist alles nur Fassade?
Meinung
Ein Buch voller Zeichnungen und dazu auch noch als Tagebuch geschrieben? Das wird bestimmt etwas neues, dachte ich mir. Wurde es auch. Die Zeichnu...more
Ein unbeliebter Junge: Keine Freunde und vor allem keine Freundin, er ist ein Außenseiter. Doch als er mit seiner Mutter umzieht, verändert sich alles. Er will sich ändern und endlich etwas aus seinem Leben machen, das schwört er sich (und seinem Skizzenbuch). Er wird zu Happyface, doch ist er wirklich glücklich oder ist alles nur Fassade?
Meinung
Ein Buch voller Zeichnungen und dazu auch noch als Tagebuch geschrieben? Das wird bestimmt etwas neues, dachte ich mir. Wurde es auch. Die Zeichnu...more
Happyface by Stephen Emond is a fiction, and I rated it 5 stars.
Happyface's setting is in a high school-small town-environment.
Its story doesn't have a big dip like the novels out there, but it does revolve in one important factor in life. It emphasizes on the effects of pretending to be someone you're not to be like be the popular crowd.The way the book is written is in a journal category. It's filled with sketches of his crushes, his love letter, hate mails etc. The story goes
The main charact...more
Happyface's setting is in a high school-small town-environment.
Its story doesn't have a big dip like the novels out there, but it does revolve in one important factor in life. It emphasizes on the effects of pretending to be someone you're not to be like be the popular crowd.The way the book is written is in a journal category. It's filled with sketches of his crushes, his love letter, hate mails etc. The story goes
The main charact...more
This unique young adult book is written in an interesting format, part traditional text (in a handwriting style font), part comic book, part storytelling through illustration. It's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" for teens, but with a MUCH deeper story. Following his parent's seperation (and an additional event that isn't revealed until much later, when it hits the reader like a sledgehammer), a young man starts at a new school with a new personality and identity. Gone is the geek who couldn't talk to gi...more
This is a very good book. I picked it up from the library shelf because of it's bright yellow color. When I saw the sad-face cover, I was intrigued and started reading. It was pretty good, so I took it home. I couldn't stop reading. I stayed up late to read more and more, and once I stayed up so late, I found myself the next day, in bed with the book beside me.
Another thing that surprised me were the drawings. Black and White, yes, but still very good. They helped me visualize everything that...more
Another thing that surprised me were the drawings. Black and White, yes, but still very good. They helped me visualize everything that...more
Doesn't quite make it to a 3, had to trudge through too much of it, BUT I can see some graphic novel fans taking to it as if it's a high school version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. And maybe it is, though, granted, with some more serious issues interspersed in those of typical high school nerd-dom. The tragedy of Happyface (is his real name Steve, Stephen?)seems to be only the separation of his parents, the loss of Chloe, the girl who was his best friend and who he wanted to be more, and having to m...more
Wow! That was not at all what I was expecting and that was a good thing... I thought it would either be a Happy Kid (good book too) knockoff or a slightly more mature Diary of a Wimpy Kid and at first it seemed to be heading in the latter direction, but it was good... then it got sappy and I got worried...
But then after the move I got really into the main character's trials... and then all of a sudden there was a swerve in the plot which I did not see coming... at first it made me angry, and I f...more
But then after the move I got really into the main character's trials... and then all of a sudden there was a swerve in the plot which I did not see coming... at first it made me angry, and I f...more
After his brother’s untimely death in a car wreck, the narrator’s life changes forever. His parents get divorced; Chloe, the girl he loved but could never make a move on, is left behind after discovering her secret relationship with his deceased sibling; and the narrator wants a fresh start. He vows to leave his geeky, artistic self behind, along with the problems that led to the move. His new object of obsession, Gretchen, rechristens him Happyface, and he remakes himself through a smiling mask...more
Happyface
Happyface
By Stephen Emond
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
# of Pages: 320
Age Rating: 14+
My Rating: 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Enter Happyface's journal and get a peek into the life of a shy, artistic boy who decides to reinvent himself as a happy-go-lucky guy after he moves to a new town. See the world through his hilariously self-deprecating eyes as he learns to shed his comic-book-loving, computer-game playing ways. Join him as he makes new friends, tries to hide from his past, and ultimate...more
Happyface
By Stephen Emond
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
# of Pages: 320
Age Rating: 14+
My Rating: 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Enter Happyface's journal and get a peek into the life of a shy, artistic boy who decides to reinvent himself as a happy-go-lucky guy after he moves to a new town. See the world through his hilariously self-deprecating eyes as he learns to shed his comic-book-loving, computer-game playing ways. Join him as he makes new friends, tries to hide from his past, and ultimate...more
Follow the diary of a quiet, artistic kid who moves to a new town and reinvents himself as "Happyface." As long as he wears a smile, he is able to make friends, meet girls, and be the person he always wanted to be. However, we slowly discover that the smile is just a mask, and as hard as you try, eventually you need to face those things you are trying to forget. When his new friends start to uncover some of Happyface's secrets, even his silly grin can't fix his broken relationships.
Happyface is...more
Happyface is...more
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Hello, my name is Stephen Emond, or just Steve if you prefer. There isn’t much about that me isn’t be said in this excerpt from the HAPPYFACE page on amazon.com:
About the Author
Steve Emond does not have any superhuman powers, neat tricks, or famous relatives, but he’s a pretty cool guy who can draw. He is the creator of Emo Boy, which ran for 12 issues and two collections, and the comic strip, Ste...more
More about Stephen Emond...
About the Author
Steve Emond does not have any superhuman powers, neat tricks, or famous relatives, but he’s a pretty cool guy who can draw. He is the creator of Emo Boy, which ran for 12 issues and two collections, and the comic strip, Ste...more
Share This Book
“I swear, with Chloe Bear once again as my witness...
That my problems and failures will not stop me, nor will they dictate who I am.
That I will continue to be my own person.
That life is too short, and I will live every day as the best person I can be.
That I will grow and that I will change.
That I will smile and hold my head high.
That this is a new start and a new day.
That I will allow myself to cry or sit by myself when I need to.
That I will find things to really smile about.”
—
40 people liked it
That my problems and failures will not stop me, nor will they dictate who I am.
That I will continue to be my own person.
That life is too short, and I will live every day as the best person I can be.
That I will grow and that I will change.
That I will smile and hold my head high.
That this is a new start and a new day.
That I will allow myself to cry or sit by myself when I need to.
That I will find things to really smile about.”
“I'm not exactly Miss Confidence. I busy myself with all kinds of activities and I do well in school and I try to look pretty but I still need someone to tell me I'm worthwhile. To show me attention. I don't like it. I don't like it at all...”
—
18 people liked it
More quotes…
Sep 15, 2010 02:44am
Sep 16, 2010 02:04am