The New York Times Book Review - Samantha Hunt
The joy of grandparents, dancing and family gatherings are not layered on neutral ground, rather, Love is courageously set in moments of alarm, distress and heartache. From these depths, de la Peña…indicates the path to kindness and peace…Love that comes untested is perhaps not love strong enough for troubled times. This book looks into the darkness and still find stars twinkling overhead.
From the Publisher
Praise for Love:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 Indie Bestseller
A Winter 2017-2018 Kids’ Indie Next Top Pick
Five Starred Reviews
An Amazon Best of the Year Pick 2018 – Ages 3-5
A Time Magazine Best Children’s Book of 2018
An NPR Best Book of 2018
"Accompanied by Loren Long’s charming illustrations, this book, also available in Spanish, celebrates how love exists in the ordinary and why we should treasure moments, big and small, with the people in our lives."—Time Magazine
"[A] poetic reckoning of the importance of love in a child's life . . . eloquent and moving."—People Magazine
"Everything that can be called love — from shared joy to comfort in the darkness — is gathered in the pages of this reassuring, refreshingly honest picture book."—The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice / Staff Picks From the Book Review
“Lyrical and sensitive, ‘Love’ is the sort of book likely to leave readers of all ages a little tremulous, and brimming with feeling.”—The Wall Street Journal
★ "De la Peña’s prose poem speaks right to young children. . . . People often talk to children about love; in these pages, they can see and feel what it’s like. And there’s plenty for everybody."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This book looks into the darkness and still finds stars twinkling overhead.”—The New York Times Book Review
★ “From the moment prose and art appear in the opening spread, de la Peña and Long usher readers into a patient, pensive meditation on love. . . . Timely, timeless, and utterly necessary.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Newbery Award–winning De la Peña offers a lyrical ode to love in this stirring picture book. . . . In De la Peña’s lines, love becomes not just an emotion between people but a feeling suffusing the world.”—Booklist
★ “Long and Matt de la Peña . . . hit the mark with Love . . . a gentle, poetic picture book about love in all circumstances, even the tough ones.”—Shelf Awareness
★ "This heartfelt and sensitively rendered picture book meditation begs to be shared and discussed with children . . . Spread the love."—School Library Journal, starred review
★ “An exquisitely written and illustrated picture book that speaks of how love, even when it’s difficult to recognize, can percolate up through the most common of daily circumstances.”—The Horn Book, starred review
"Love – it's an abstract emotion, right? Not even close. These pictures and words describe a zillion ways to think of love . . . For readers, this book is a lifelong challenge to ask: What is love? And how can we create more of it in what we think and do and say?"—Justine Kenin, producer, All Things Considered, in NPR's Book Concierge Guide to 2018’s Great Reads
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-11-22
From the moment prose and art appear in the opening spread, de la Peña and Long usher readers into a patient, pensive meditation on love.Love is the sound of the first voices we ever hear; it is the color of the night sky over a happy home; it is the echo of summer laughter. Love is under the stars during a fire alarm, behind a family's worry over a troubled world, and in the reassuring embrace after a bad dream. Love is at the core of family and at the back of sorrow and in the very bones of this book. If it's possible to shout quietly, then de la Peña has mastered the technique. His lyrical prose roars with gentle (and deceptive) simplicity to uncover the everyday and unexpected places where love and sometimes pain reside, giving rise to resilience. Not to be outmatched, Long's illustrations roar right back, crafting mirrors within a gorgeous spectrum of brown skin and glimpses of different lives, shaping reflections within visual perspectives that immerse readers in emotive power. And in a book brimful with potent images, readers are sure to pause at the stunning double-page spread filled with the placid face of a young person of color along with this assertion: "And the face staring back in the bathroom mirror—this, too, is love."Timely, timeless, and utterly necessary. (Picture book. 4-8)
