BubblegumBooks

I like myself a nice picture book every once and a while, and this one was really cute. 

I don't really know that much about Virginia Woolf herself, but I know enough to know that little girl this book is about is based off her, loosely.

Virginia is in a "wolfish" mood. This means she howl, growls, snaps at people, and sleeps in bed a lot, hiding away. She is depicted by a mere black shadow of a wolf throughout the book, in contrast with her surroundings. Vanessa, her sister, is cheery. She dresses in yellow and she loves to paint. All she wants to do is cheer up her sister, but nothing ever seems to work. 

Vanessa does't give up easily, she is very persistent. When her brooding sister lets slip her dream of a magical world in which she thinks she could be happy, she decides to make her dreams reality. With paint and a brush, she starts painting on the walls, and takes them both to Bloomsberry in hopes to bring her happy sister back again.

The colors in this were beautiful and soft, and everything when Virginia is sad is in black and white and grey. It was fun to read, put a smile on my face. I love that art was something that brought back the joy and cheer and hope in the story, the loving sisters, and the depiction of a really, really bad day with just shapes and colors.

I may also be over stepping the line of what kind of a bad day this books shows, but the fact that Virginia Woolf was who the story is based on, it also says something for depression and what it looks like. Though described lightly and more relatably here (this is a kid's book after all), I thought this was quite perfect, though less magically and quickly cured in real life. Still puts a smile on my face.

To read when you feel gloomy.