Perfect for a snuggly read, a Valentine’s Day storytime, or a gift between special friends of any age.
A humorous explanation of what love is and isn’t.
Though the text is straightforward, the spare cartoon illustrations are loaded with fun details. Spreads feature the words I love you followed by three rhyming phrases. The first illustration of each verse offers a humorous contradiction: “I love you like a cuddle loves”—a cactus? (The accompanying image depicts a brown-skinned child looking nervously at the cactus.) Of course not. But the next illustrations and words show more likely comparisons. “I love you like a cuddle loves / a bunny.” Even the youngest listeners will get the joke that a bear loves honey and not broccoli or that a cat prefers sleeping in the sun to walking under cloudy skies, although many young readers will not embrace I love you “like a heart loves / romance.” Strategic page turns add suspense or giggles and create opportunities for children to supply their own answers, perhaps even in rhyme, and the text’s simple format can easily be extended for more wordplay using daily events. Fun word choices will introduce kids to potentially new vocabulary. “I love you like a pirate loves / an X, // like a witch loves / a hex, // and like a muscle loves / to flex.” Because the book ends with the clear message of “I LOVE YOU!” readers should be prepared to close the book and share a loving hug or two. Characters throughout are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Perfect for a snuggly read, a Valentine’s Day storytime, or a gift between special friends of any age. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79721-007-0
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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