This is such a wonderful story for children but it could serve as a reminder for many adults. I hope that all of you will pick this little gem up for all the little ones you have in your life.

It is a great reminder that we find happiness within ourselves and we need to remember to find it every day.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The pictures are bright and colorful. The story is good. Not everyone is happy all the time, and it's important for kids to recognize that.

Aya and Papaya Find Happiness is a cute book for preschool or kindergarten children. Aya wakes up one morning and realizes that she is not happy. She doesn't know why and tries to figure it out. She and her doll Papaya, search high and low, talk to her siblings and parents, but can't figure out where here happiness has gone. She finally retraces her steps from the last time she remembers being happy and discovers that it was always there, but buried inside her.This is a simple story with an important message, happiness must come from within, you can't expect others to make you happy. It is the same with other emotions, you determine how you feel about something. This is not to say that children can't have emotions of anger or sadness based upon what is happening around them, but that only we can control those emotions or change them. I read this with my grandchildren. My granddaughter (three) enjoyed the story and thought Aya and Papaya were fun. She enjoyed the illustrations a lot and talked about them. She did not grasp the emotion part. My grandson, who is five, immediately wanted to talk about when he feels sad and what he can do to make himself happy again. Based on this observation, I would recommend that this story would be best understood by children 4 and up.

Aya has lost her happiness and does her best to find it back. This book is perfect for kids learning about feelings. My own kids are 5 and 8 and this book led to more discussions about how to gauge your own feelings. In my work I work with students in need of support in their social skills. I read this to them as well. Our discussion centered around what to do if you lose your happiness--who to talk to, steps to take, etc. The illustrations are beautiful and engaging for lower elementary.

Aya and Papaya Find Happiness. ©2019 by MQ Media Holdings Limited. Created by MQ. Written and produced by Andy Abby, Anne Bleeker and the Qs. Illustrated by Leo Antolini.

Cute children’s picture book with a great message and wonderful illustrations. Enjoy this great book about the good-natured girl, Aya, with her doll Papaya, as she discovers where happiness really comes from. Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook for review.

This is a really sweet little story about a your girl called Aya and her doll Papaya. Aya wakes up one morning and is feeling different and she doesn't know why. The story in the book is her finding her happiness again. The story is lovely and it is an easy read with some lovely images.

*I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Cute illustrations with a cohesive story and a good message for kids. Recommended!

Aya and Papya Find Happiness is a darling children's book written and illustrated especially for the pre-reader otherwise known as pre-school aged child. Aya is a young girl who has woken up to discover that she is unhappy and no matter where she looks, she simply can not find where her happiness has gone. After searching high and low, everywhere possible, she discovers that her happiness was inside herself all along. It's a simple story but one with a lesson that is very important to teach young ones: others cannot make or influence your emotions, only you can do that. As adults so often we teach children that other people make them happy or sad or angry or mad, then as adults we have to "unlearn" that behavior. This book helps children learn an important life lesson correctly from the beginning. Yes, of course, there are times when a child will feel sad, depressed, lonely or angry and those are legitimate feelings as well. But sometimes, kids are grumpy and books like Aya and Papaya helps them learn to self-comfort, a good tool for life.

In addition to teachable moments, I also look for good illustrations in children's books. There is no point in writing a book for kids if you are not going to illustrate it properly. I recently purchased a book that had amazing line drawings but every picture was in stark black and white. For the ages for which it was intended, that was not acceptable. Children need and want colorful, well expressed illustrations and this book is filled with them from beginning to end. As you might have guessed from the title, there is a multi-cultural theme to the book - also a wonderful reason to include it into your children's home library. Glowing stars all around for this beautifully told, wonderfully illustrated book.

Thank you to #Netgalley and @Matadorbooks for my copy of #AyaandPapayaFindHappiness on sale now at Amazon.

What a delightful book! How can one not love Aya (and Papaya)? This simple and adorable book brings an important and profound life-lesson: that there's no need to go looking for happiness everywhere--it is within us.. The book sweetly describes how Aya thinks she has lost her happiness and how she discovers that she hasn't lost it but had it right inside her, all the time. We hold the key to our happiness and this book brings home that point through a child. It also shows how there is magic in routine!

Brilliant book for a child to read over and over--and for adults too!

I thought this was a neat little book that dealt with a topic we can all relate to. Finding happiness was the theme of the book and the author did a great job at personifying the emotion and engaging my young readers to be able to get the point and relate it to their own lives. The illustrations were great also.

Beautiful pictures. This little one has lost her happiness and her and her best friend go to look for it. She puts on her favorite things and searches for it. She learns that her happiness is inside her and she did not lose it after all. This book is a good reminder to find happiness in yourself, not things or other people.

Such a cute and sweet book, much needed in today's depressing times! Lovely read for children and leads to discussions about emotions and feelings, and what makes them happy and sad. Beautiful illustrations.

A sweet story of a girl waking up in a funk and trying to figure out where her happiness went. Very relatable.! I have three little girls and sometimes they wake up on the wrong side of the bed. It's helpful for mama too, to remember that everyone has a weird day that just needs a do-over.

It takes about half the book and a look in the mirror for Aya to realize what’s wrong with her. It seems rather obvious, though, and doesn’t explain why. She and her dolly go looking for happiness in some strange places.
Sneaky little message of empowerment.
The artwork is almost 3-D, with some of the characters drawn like those in Song of the Sea, especially the mom. There’s a cute shot of the dynamic duo upside-down while looking under the bed.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own - and well - my four year old daughters.

Having recently read and reviewed a couple of other childrens books with my daughter, I knew that when more books become available my daughter would enjoy reading it.

Aya and Papaya Find Happiness is a story about a young girl who is convinced she lost her happiness and goes about retracing her steps to find out where exactly she last had her happiness.
This is a sweet story with a great lesson to be learnt. The pictures are colourful and the story is easy to follow. MQ kept my four year old daughter interested.

A book about happiness, from a different point of view in relation to what we are used to. Aya is a little girl who suddenly misses her happiness. Despite their great efforts, neither herself nor her best friend Papaya (her doll) manage to find the girl's happiness. With the help of her parents, Aya finally regains her happiness in a very simple way: After remembering what made her happy all the previous days of her life, Aya realizes that all that time her happiness was hiding inside her... because it was asleep!So she restarts her day in order to "wake up" her positive feelings.
Although the illustrations corresponds to the text, the graphics are slightly "computerized". But this is a matter of personal taste. On the bright side, they are quite colorful.
Overall, I would highly recommend the book for its meaning and especially for the way it is presented.

One of my boys has some trouble focusing on the positive things in his life and once one thing goes awry the whole day in his eyes has been terrible. Aya and Papaya Find Happiness is a great book for kids like him to help explain that happiness lies within you. Along with the great lesson this book offers, there are gorgeous illustrations to help kids feel engaged with this story. I recommend this book to anyone with little ones at all, but especially to kids who have struggles with anxiety or negativity.

Aimed at children, the book Aya and Papaya Find Happiness sends a good message to anyone. Young Aya wakes up and feels different. She figures out that her happiness is gone and she doesn't know why. Her parents ask when was the last time she felt happy. She thought about it and realized it was yesterday! She thinks of all the things that made her happy yesterday and eventually comes to the realization that her happiness isn't gone; she just needs to wake it up.
The lesson here is that happiness is inside you all of the time - you just have to find it. This message is great for younger readers (ages 4-6 or so) but also those a bit older who are still learning about emotions and where to find them and how to identify them.

I loved the character of Aya and her trusty side kick Papaya.
It is a little book for children about starting the day.
Children live books and listening to stories and with pictures you can extend the interaction with the child.
The difficulty here is the learning of a possible truth about one’s emotions and the ability to understand that happiness can come from within.
Equally, it implies that if you are not happy one’s like of happiness is not starting the day correctly.
I’m not comfortable with this concept that happy or sad is an internal function of Will counting one’s blessings and being positive.
External factors can weigh heavy on children and they need support to face any given day. To look in a mirror a smile is a start but tears are also part of life and need to be embraced.
Loved Ana as I said and she carries the story and should bring a smile to he young child’s face

A really cute story and message that I would definitely read to my own young girls. We all have days where we wake up not feeling our best, and the author addresses that this happens to kids too. Bright, colorful pictures and an easy to follow, yet attention grabbing story.