LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING

Chipmunk parents and children display mutual attachment in this uncomplicated new entry in the teeming “I Love You More/So Much/This Much/Forever” genre.

Anthropomorphic in dress and body proportions, a furry family sets out for a day of play and picnicking, followed by dinnertime, baths and bedtime. It’s all punctuated by hugs, nuzzles and affectionate glances. Suspended on spreads of blank creamy paper with just occasional food items or tufts of grass for detail, Henry’s smiling animal figures fly kites, make chalk drawings, relax on a checkered blanket and (in the parents’ case) look on fondly as the daylong idyll passes. Despite occasional inexact rhymes and words selected more for sound than relevance, the accompanying patterned couplets warmly reflect each picture’s mix of buoyant energy and happy but not wild action: “Sprinkle, twinkle, mix, and bake. / Love you more than / chocolate cake. // Sudsy, wudsy, splash, and laugh. / Love you more than bubbly bath.” A bit bland, but it conveys the two-way message without turning syrupy. (Picture book. 4-6)