I love you, baby!

This love letter in rhyme describes just how much a parent loves his or her child: e.g., "Hide-and-seek and peekaboo--we find fun in all our play. / If there are tiny tumbles, my love kisses them away!" The exclamation-point-laden text is cloying, though the colorful illustrations, depicting various smiling animal parents tenderly caring for their offspring, provide genuine warmth. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A love song of sorts from parent to child, illustrated with animal families and a surfeit of snuggles. First-person, rhyming verse expresses parental love for children, with double-page spreads devoted to animal families that exemplify each loving statement. In keeping with the singular first-person text and title, there is always one parent on a given spread, but the number of offspring depicted varies. An early spread depicts a family of cheetahs or leopards lounging in a tree with text reading "I love your sleepy wake-up smile, as we start our day. / I love our morning cuddles, and the way we laugh and play." The closing picture is of a house cat curled up in an armchair with five kittens at day's end alongside text that reads "So snuggle down and close your eyes, the night is soft and still. / I love you, love you, love you, and I always, always will!" Between these feline lovefests, polar bears, dogs, bees, snakes, and many other animals, all anthropomorphized to greater or lesser extent, appear in affectionate tableaux to accompany the text. The sweet-as-sugar illustrations are painted in an Easter-egg palette with rounded forms and occasional heart embellishments to reinforce the text's theme. Sure to find love on the baby-shower circuit. (Picture book. 1-3) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.