I definitely think the shading was done very well, and flow of the lines and color seem to direct your eyes right to his face.

The expression, on the other hand, seems a bit ambiguous. If the title wasn't "Happy Kid" I would have never known what emotion it was supposed to convey.



As for the background, possibly a messy living room, couch, and a controller from his preferred video game console positioned in the bottom, right hand corner.