I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK ALL YEAR LONG

A parent bear enumerates the many wonderful things about sharing the world with a beloved small cub through the four seasons.

While this is yet another sweet I-love-you book, it’s a cut above many of the rest with its adorable artwork and text that combines rhymes and rhythms with a message that will largely be understandable to even the smallest tots: “I love to chase and play with you / on hot midsummer days, // and swim in sparkling waters / underneath the sun’s bright rays.” The parent loves the rising sun, the crisp fall leaves, the small cub’s wonder at new spring shoots, as well as holding the cub’s paw as they walk together, friends and family, and—most of all—the cub’s presence. “You fill my life with magic, / each day a new surprise, / a softly swirling snowflake that / cheers up winter skies. // And as you drift to sleep / beneath a sky of inky blue, // I’m grateful for the love we share / that shines the whole year through.” In Warnes’ soft illustrations, the duo appear soft and cuddly, their facial expressions and activities anthropomorphized and their love for each other very clear. The backgrounds of forest, river, and mountains show the changing seasons with bright colors.

Sure, the I-love-you-this-much shelf has room for this one.