20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful book with some slight reservations, January 11, 2009
This review is from: The I LOVE YOU Book (Hardcover)
My first reaction on seeing this book is that it is just beautiful -- the picture here doesn't do it justice. It is a nice thick cover with a cutout heart, which is surrounded by a silver edging. The illustrations are just lovely -- bright lively colors like those reflected on the cover, with a "handwriting" sort of font. The drawings are moving and relatable.
The theme is simple.. "I love you when." They give you both "positive" and "negative" reasons -- as in "I love you when you sleep [picture of baby asleep in car seat]. I love you when you don't sleep [picture of cranky, awake baby held by parent]. Other positives include depictions of children at lots of ages, from brand new swaddled baby to older child walking around. Culturally, it's unclear what's going on there -- they are stick type people with colored faces. Most are yellow, with some shade of yellow, but there are definitely shades. There are also some blue and purple faces -- sometimes because it's dark in the picture, but not always. There are families with multiple face shades in the same family, which is nice to see. The people, especially the women, are not all identical, but have different hairstyles, colorings and styles. I wouldn't exactly call it multicultural, but it's not homegeneous either.
My reservations are slight, but nag at me enough to mention. First, it does have some limiting scenes for those who might be bothered them not being reflective of their family. There are several depictions of tradition mom-dad-baby family. There is an image of mom being away from baby at work at a desk in an office, which is limiting even for some working moms who don't have desk jobs. In the "don't sleep" scene there is a discarded baby bottle on the ground which might not fit for breastfeeding families.
Most significantly is the point-counterpoint factor. What I mean my this is that "I love you when..." books always make me a little nervous. Even when they balance overall between the examples when kids are being "good" and being "bad" or having emotions or behaviors that are desirable or less desirable, they still can leave an odd impression. For example, this one has "I love you when you share" -- so is the child not loved when they don't share? I know it's overthinking a bit, so if it doesn't bother you, don't think twice about it, and get this book -- it really is cute! If it does bother you even a bit, you might want to get your hands on it in person and read it all the way through to see if it is overall balanced enough to make you feel comfortable with it (for example, it does offer "I love you when you hide my keys" and "I love you when you're shy."
So, these reservations are overall very minor in the larger scheme of a lovely book, but I thought they were worth mentioning for those who might find them significant. Overall, lovely book, lovely gift for Valentine's Day, birthday, holiday or any season.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unconditional Love, February 8, 2009
This review is from: The I LOVE YOU Book (Hardcover)
I LOVE this book (no pun intended.) I think the promise of unconditional love is one of the most important things we can instill in our kids to make them grow up to be better kids and better adults. Unfortunately, it's a concept so many of us come to understand later in life, after the crucial child-development period has passed. This book makes kids feel loved via the kind of humor and silliness they can easily understand. It tells them they're loved "when they share...when they're shy...and even when they're stinky." I know this author's work well, and think this may be his best book yet, in helping kids jump start their self-confidence.
--Marcello
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good working Mom book, June 15, 2010
This review is from: The I LOVE YOU Book (Hardcover)
Great book, very cute picture, love the message. One of my favorite things is that it has a quote 'I love you when I'm at work' and shows a working mom at a desk. Don't see that often.
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