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THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU

Name: THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU
Author: Julie A. Rudi
ISBN: 978-1-58925-644-6

by Julie A. Rudi ; illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2013

A derivative work in a market already oversaturated with similar titles.

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An unsuccessful knockoff of The Runaway Bunny and Guess How Much I Love You.

A raccoon tells its cub how much it is loved in first-person rhymed verse. “I love you, I love you, above all the rest. / If you were a bird, I’d be your nest.” While Rudi’s verse is fluid, it has been done to death. Beeke’s richly colored paintings on grained and textured paper do well in the stage-setting scenes of the raccoon and cub together but fall apart in most of the forced, fanciful analogies of parental love. “If you were a squirrel, I’d be your tree” depicts a squirrel peeping out of a hole in a hollow tree; above the hole is a rudimentary happy face, complete with pink cheeks, and a twig circles round to “hug” the squirrel. Particularly cumbersome is the second-to-last spread, which depicts several pairings, such as cone and ice cream, salt and pepper, and needle and thread, but it is not at all clear who is meant to be the parent and who the child.

A derivative work in a market already oversaturated with similar titles. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)

Pub Date: March 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-58925-644-6

Page Count: 20

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: March 19, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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SMILE, POUT-POUT FISH

by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2014

An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.

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This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.

Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.

An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8

Page Count: 12

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WORRY-WORRY WHALE AND THE CLASSROOM JITTERS
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

- BOOK REVIEW
POUT-POUT FISH
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

- BOOK REVIEW
THE POUT-POUT FISH AND THE MAD, MAD DAY
by Deborah Diesen ; illustrated by Dan Hanna

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THE ABCS OF LOVE

by Rose Rossner ; illustrated by AndoTwin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2020

Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.

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Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.

Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.

Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)