How Far Do You Love Me?

by Lulu Delacre, Lulu Delacre (Illustrator)

Overview

This unique bedtime book by award-winning author-illustrator Lulu Delacre features a game that highlights the universal love between caregivers and children while taking readers on a journey across the seven continents of Earth.

How far do you love me?
I love you to the top of the peaks
lit by the morning sun ...
To the crests of the desert
where the wind sweeps sand from the dunes ...

Based on a bedtime game that author-illustrator Lulu Delacre played with her young daughters, How Far Do You Love Me? is an "I love you" book with a twist. With every expression of love, readers visit a different location around the world, each a beautifully illustrated scene of caregivers and children in a place of natural beauty.

The intimate size of the book is just right for sharing and snuggling up close with a child. As bedtime—or any quiet time—approaches, gather close with a special person in your life and get ready to let your imagination soar to place after place as you embark on a game of "How far do you love me?" The possibilities are endless!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643795195
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lulu Delacre is a bilingual author and New York Times Bestselling illustrator of children's books. Winner of several Pura Belpré Award Honors and an Orbis Pictus Honor, Delacre was a juror for the 2003 National Book Awards. A native of Puerto Rico, Delacre lives with her husband in Silver Spring, Maryland. For more information, visit luludelacre.com.

Lulu Delacre is a bilingual author and New York Times Bestselling illustrator of children's books. Winner of several Pura Belpré Award Honors and an Orbis Pictus Honor, Delacre was a juror for the 2003 National Book Awards. A native of Puerto Rico, Delacre lives with her husband in Silver Spring, Maryland. For more information, visit luludelacre.com.

Editorial Reviews

"What a beautiful book! ... a volume that will be treasured by all." — Great Britain Association of School Librarians

"... a seven continent nod to spectacular geographic places that are as majestic as love itself." — The Horn Book

"the illustrations are absolutely breathtaking!... a new family classic..." — Writer Mom's Blog

"This topic is similarly explored in many classic picture books such as Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You and Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny, but the multicultural worldview is unique." — School Library Journal

Best Children's Books of the Year - Bank Street College of Education

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 2—Inspired by a game Delacre played with her daughters, this celebration of the love parents have for their children poses the question, "How far do you love me?" with answers that span the globe. Soft pastel paintings of places such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Cenote Dzitnup in Yucatán, Mexico, along with expressive sentences describing these locales, are used to compare a parent's love to the vastness of the natural world. "I love you to the top of the peaks lit by the morning sun….To the depths of the cave where a spring seeps sweet water…." Various cultures and all seven continents are represented, and each spread is labeled to identify its setting; an outline map and author's note are included in the back matter. At the end, the child tries to outdo his mother by loving her "to the Moon," but as he falls asleep, she has the last word: "I love you to the space beyond the space we know." This topic is similarly explored in many classic picture books such as Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995) and Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny (HarperCollins, 1942), but the multicultural worldview is unique. A good choice for one-on-one sharing between a parent and child.—Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

A simple question enables the author/illustrator to travel around the world in her poetic and visual answers. Starting on a Vieques, Puerto Rico, beach, a mother answers the question posed by her son and tells him her love ranges to places as far-flung as the glaciers of Antarctica, the Ladakh Himalayas and the Great Barrier Reef. Delacre uses her soft pastels to depict such images as the sinuous natural forms of a desert in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, where a woman in traditional dress cradles an infant, and the text reads: "I love you to the crests of the desert / where the wind sweeps sand from the dunes." As the book comes full circle, the original mother tucks her son in and asks, "And how far do you love me?" He answers, "I love you to the moon!" On the last page, in a beautiful, deep night sky, the question appears in different languages in original scripts (with no transliterations or pronunciations, a missed opportunity). Although the place names on each double-page spread can be difficult to read, that information is also provided on a map at the end. Small and reminiscent of the emotional feel of The Runaway Bunny, this is an intimate bedtime book with a global theme. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews