Before You

Doughty (Some Tips for a Happier World and a Better Life) eloquently deploys a string of metaphors, first to highlight a sense of feeling incomplete ("I was a flower with no pot./ I was a polka with no dot") and then to describe the satisfaction and happiness that come with finding one's perfect pair ("I had a cup, you brought the tea./ I had a boat, you brought the sea"). Scraggily outlined in black ink, Doughty's cartoons never turn saccharine, especially in forlorn scenes of ice-cream-less cones and about-to-be-squashed four-leaf clovers in the first half of the book, and her poem works just as well to describe a parent's love of his or her child as it does to express romantic affection. Ages 4%E2%80%937. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Dec.)