Sometimes you just need one. A pick-me-up. For part of my Valentine’s Day, my wife gave me a little book that I’ve seen in bookstores, but never picked up or even really looked at before. It turns out it was just what we needed. Right now I feel like I have no control over my life—working 40 hours a week, doing student teaching another 45 hours a week, she’s pregnant, we’re moving into our first house a month from now, and I’m THIS CLOSE to freaking out. That has various manifestations, but usually I’m just so tired that I start to get down. And when I get down, I need something to pick me back up again.

That’s exactly what “The Blue Day Book” is for. Bradley Trevor Greive’s 2000 publication is just a hair larger than a CD jewel case, has fewer than 100 sentences, but is just the right medicine for what ails ya. The book is subtitled “A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up,” and it delivers.

The book is a simple set up: a picture of an animal on each page, with a sentence underneath it. Like so:

“Everybody has blue days.” (Photo of a grumpy polar bear)
“There are miserable days when you feel lousy,” (sad bulldog)
“grumpy,” (Ed Asner-looking hippo)
“lonely,” (white baby seal with big dark eyes)
“and utterly exhausted” (lion collapsed on a log)

The genius of the book isn’t necessarily in what Greive says, but in the marrying of text and photo—and he admits this in his acknowledgments, paying tribute to the dozens of photographers involved in the project. The photos are perfectly suited to the material, and as the self-help progresses through the stages of sadness, we’re treated to a menagerie in emotional turmoil. There are kangaroos and zebras and penguins and lions and bears (no tigers), and even an anteater. It’s hard to describe exactly how effective this book is without writing the whole thing out, but it’s been a real pick-me-up for me (and for my co-workers who are reading it right now and chuckling over it) in the week that I’ve owned it.

It’s funny, it’s touching, it’s clever…it’s everything you need to break yourself out of that funk. The animals do a lot to bust that sour mood, and Greive’s text and overall message are uplifting enough on their own. Plus, it’s got a pig trying to get freaky with a sheep. And who can’t get into that?

There are others in this series of books, including one about the Meaning of Life that I’ve already placed on my want list…if it’s anything as clever and uplifting as “The Blue Day Book,” it may have me leaving the Quinnitarians for the Greiveites. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing. If you’ve been in the same kind of winter doldrums that I’ve been in—despite being so busy I need another life to cram it all in—this book is for you.


Recommended: Yes

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