Ready?

Upon remembering that a party is coming up, the protagonist loses her smile. She begins a desperate and ingenious search to find it. She tries gestures, flavours, makeup, new techniques, and even magic recipes, but nothing brings her smile back. She comes up with a solution to her problem and thinks she is ready, but is she really?
The expressive, narrative-style illustrations describe the protagonist’s journey toward self-knowledge. With an ending that seeks not to resolve but to empower, the book invites readers to engage in a personal process, where the answer lies not in magical or external solutions, but in the acceptance of oneself and one’s emotions.

Key points

• It addresses the difficulties of managing emotions and maintaining authenticity under pressure to meet social expectations.
• It proposes that what truly matters is showing ourselves as we are, even when we cannot offer a smile.
• The open and positive ending encourages conversation with young readers through questions like ‘What do you think she did?’ or ‘How would you feel in this situation?’