Review: what is the secret to happiness?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2014
Elina Stamatatou has written a sweet book that tells the story of a family learning the secret to happiness.  Written from the point of view of a five year-old girl, The First Secret starts out in the kitchen with Katerina watching her mom back a cake in the shape of a cat.I was charmed by Katrina's observation that her mother had to clean up the kitchen right away or it would upset her, "And as we all know, mothers are experts at yelling". loc. 28 of 104.  There's no judgment in this for the little girl, just a black and white statement of fact.To learn the 'first secret' the family, Katrina, her mother and her sister Ios, sit outside and look up at the stars.  I'll give away the secret now because this is a book kids will want to hear over and over again anyway.  The secret is love.  Love what you do which adds to the overall love of the universe.  Push away things that bring you down, and bring close the things that make you love more and universe will smile back at you.The book is illustrated by Lydia Venieri, and though they were beautiful, I found that they made it difficult to discern what was going on in the story.