Love

by Stacy McAnulty, Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (Illustrator)

Overview

From award-winning author Stacy McAnulty comes a sweet story about love and what it's really all about.

What is love? Can you only express it in fancy meals, greeting cards, and heart-shaped chocolates? Kids will find love everywhere in this delightful book. It can be found in everyday moments such as baking cookies with grandma, notes from Mom in your lunchbox, or a family singing together on a car trip, and it isn't always what you expect!

With delightful illustrations by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff and sweetly simple prose by award-winning author Stacy McAnulty, thisis the perfect book to teach children what love means, why it's important, and how they can spread the love in their daily lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762492541
Publisher:	Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date:	12/04/2018
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Stacy McAnulty is the author of Mr. Fuzz Buster Knows He's the Favorite, 101 Reasons Why I'm Not Taking a Bath, Excellent Ed, Beautiful, and Brave. She lives in Kernersville, NC, with her family.

Joanne Lew-Vriethoff is the award-winning illustrator of Beautiful and Brave, as well as such books as Another Day as Emily, The Dancing Pancake, and Peace, Baby! She lives in Amsterdam with her family.

Editorial Reviews

11/12/2018
In a companion to Beautiful and Brave, McAnulty describes how love can be expressed through simple, genuine gestures and time spent together, using the prompt, “Love is.” Lew-Vriethoff illustrates a variously diverse group of smiling children and adults. A brown-skinned child with pigtails brings a bowl of food to a dog wearing a cast: “Love is... a fancy dinner.” Elsewhere, two children communicate via sign language from their adjacent balconies (“Love deserves to be shouted from the rooftops”), and a family welcomes an adopted sibling: “Love happens at first sight.” Finally, all of the characters enjoy a festive nighttime gathering, celebrating under the soft glow of string lights. A sweet depiction of the love that connects family and community. Ages 3–up. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Indeed, the message that comes through loudest of all is that love is simple and can be symbolized by the smallest things.... Perfect for balancing the commercialism of Valentine's Day.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

This uplifting book looks at the myriad ways that love is expressed and shared in a child's world.—School Library Journal

"[T]his book abounds with genuine human connection expressed in simple ways.... This perceptive blend of words and pictures works its own loving magic and makes the book a pleasure to share."—Spirituality & Practice

From the Publisher

11/01/2018

PreS-Gr 2—The team who produced Brave and Beautiful now presents demonstrations of love. The text and line drawings interact playfully. A "fancy dinner" is a bowl of dog food decorated with a flower, being presented to a glum pup with a leg cast. "Special presents" include a flower tiara, book, cookies, and a handmade drawing. The sounds of love are also celebrated at the shore, and drawing love messages on a wintered window. Pets, a new baby, and an adopted sister illustrate love at first sight. The book's love is also defined in sign language and a Skype visit with a military mom. A nighttime celebration completes with tale with a trio of children drawing hearts in the sky with sparklers. Lew-Vriethoff masterfully mixes cultures in her lushly hued scenes. VERDICT Despite its sometimes abstract similes, this uplifting book looks at the myriad ways that love is expressed and shared in a child's world.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

School Library Journal

★ 2018-09-17

After tackling Beautiful (2016) and Brave (2017), McAnulty and Lew-Vriethoff present readers with all things love.

Though some may disagree with the precise things McAnulty says go with love ("Love needs special presents. // And designer greeting cards"), none can argue with the sentiment, as even those lines are illustrated sweetly. Presents include a flower wreath for a hairless child in a hospital bed, a book shared from a child's overflowing wagon, cookies offered to an elderly woman, a picture for a teacher, and illustrating the "designer greeting card" is a child laboring over some artwork. Indeed, the message that comes through loudest of all is that love is simple and can be symbolized by the smallest things: a bouquet of wildflowers, a single chocolate chip, a message drawn in the sand or on a cast or on a frosty window. Best of all, love is time spent with those you love, whether they be friends, community members, family, or pets. Lew-Vriethoff excels with an effortless-seeming portrayal of diversity in her colorful illustrations. The characters have skin of every shade, there are people in wheelchairs and wearing glasses, and readers can spy both interracial families and ethnic, cultural, and religious markers.

Perfect for balancing the commercialism of Valentine's Day. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews