DID YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU?

Debut author/illustrator Pierce matches a litany of loving expressions to illustrations.

Matte hues against mostly bright white pages give a crisp look to this slip of a tale. A teal blue bird and a warm brown fox alternate dialogue in correspondingly colored word bubbles. “Did you know that I love you?” chirps the bird from its perch on a tree branch. Fox looks over its shoulder to respond, “Who, me?” As they are the only two characters in the book, it is obvious any text is aimed at one or the other. The bird continues, much to the delight of the appreciative fox: “Did I tell you quite enough?” “Could you feel it in my Hugs?” The bird’s declarations of love for the fox grow increasingly imaginative: “I’ve written it on the ceiling / and I’ve painted it on the skies.” The final spread shows the two friends hugging as the fox finally gets a word in edgewise: “I love you too.” While the graphically clean creatures are pleasing in their color and the simplicity of their lines, there is too little going on visually to compensate for the monotony of the bird’s gushing sentiments.

An overlong greeting card.