Who Loves Me? [Hardcover]

Patricia Maclachlan (Author), Emily Maclachlan Charest (Author), Amanda Shepherd (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

A tender ode to unconditional love.

A little girl asks the same question she must ask every night before drifting off to sleep...who loves me?

The result is a soothing and tender good–night tale brimming with heart, in which a little girl learns of the enormous love that surrounds her. Beloved author Patricia MacLachlan gives voice to that most elemental need, the need for love.

Newbery Medal winner Patricia MacLachlan's words are brought to life by Amanda Shepherd's playful and exquisitely painted illustrations. This inspired book of unconditional love and reassurance has all the makings of a classic.

Ages 4 – 8

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3–In this simple, soothing bedtime story, a little girl asks the title question, and her striped orange cat offers a litany of those who love her until the child drifts off to sleep. Their quiet conversation covers everyone from her parents and brother to the family dog, who would love her even if she didn't give him treats. Shepherd's stylized illustrations are bathed in rich, warm shades of goldenrod and ochre, through which MacLachlan's cozy, comforting dialogue meanders like a song. A warm and lyrical selection.–Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

PreS. In MacLachlan's latest picture book, a little girl preparing for bed asks her marmalade cat, "Who loves me?" In a drifting dialogue that suggests a nightly ritual, the pair identify the child's many admirers and free-associate cozy details appropriate to each: grandfathers demonstrate their love by teaching "about the fish in the pond"; friends don't stop loving one another just because "[they] argue sometimes." Shepherd's stylized watercolors, reminiscent of Giselle Potter's work, balance the text's saccharine notes with angular, folk-art-style depictions of girl, cat, and their spare, dreamlike surroundings. MacLachlan's examples of parental love--Mom plants a "lily garden," Dad builds a "playhouse with blue shutters and a stone path"--may not trigger the strong, universal emotions of the less-material tributes, and Shepherd's bright palette, bathed in soft yellows and sky blues, seems to contradict the bedtime premise. Still, the reassurance that children are cocooned in love even as they sleep is just what many young ones need during those anxiety-prone moments before slumber. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (May 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060279761
• ISBN-13: 978-0060279769
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia MacLachlan was born on the prairie, and to this day carries a small bag of prairie dirt with her wherever she goes to remind her of what she knew first. She is the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels, Skylark and Caleb's Story; and Three Names, illustrated by Mike Wimmer. She lives in western Massachusetts.

In Her Own Words..."One thing I've learned with age and parenting is that life comes in circles. Recently, I was having a bad time writing. I felt disconnected. I had moved to a new home and didn't feel grounded. The house, the land was unfamiliar to me. There was no garden yet. Why had I sold my old comfortable 1793 home? The one with the snakes in the basement, mice everywhere, no closets. I would miss the cold winter air that came in through the electrical sockets."

"I had to go this day to talk to a fourth-grade class, and I banged around the house, complaining. Hard to believe, since I am so mild mannered and pleasant, isn't it? What did I have to say to them? I thought what I always think when I enter a room of children. What do I know?"

"I plunged down the hillside and into town, where a group of fourth-grade children waited for me in the library, freshly scrubbed, expectant. Should I be surprised that what usually happens did so? We began to talk about place, our living landscapes. And I showed them my little bag of prairie dirt from where I was born. Quite simply, we never got off the subject of place. Should I have been so surprised that these young children were so concerned with place, or with the lack of it, their displacement? Five children were foster children, disconnected from their homes. One little boy's house had burned down, everything gone. 'Photographs, too,' he said sadly. Another told me that he was moving the next day to place he'd never been. I turned and saw the librarian, tears coming down her face."

"'You know,' I said. 'Maybe I should take this bag of prairie dirt and toss it into my new yard. I'll never live on the prairie again. I live here now. The two places could mix together that way!' 'No!' cried a boy from the back. 'Maybe the prairie dirt will blow away!' And then a little girl raised her hand. 'I think you should put that prairie dirt in a glass bowl in your window so that when you write you can see it all the time. So you can always see what you knew first.'"

"When I left the library, I went home to write. What You Know First owes much to the children of the Jackson Street School: the ones who love place and will never leave it, the ones who lost everything and have to begin again. I hope for them life comes in circles, too."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very sweet, May 25, 2005

By 

Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who Loves Me? (Hardcover)

As a little girl gets ready for bed she ask her kitten an important question. She asks it "Who Loves Me? " The kitten tells her of all the people and animals that love her and why. From the mouse to her cousins and friends animals and humans alike have their own special reason for loving the little girl!



When you read it aloud it sounds almost like a song.

This story would make a great bedtime tale. All kids need to be told who loves them each and every day!

4.0 out of 5 stars A story about unconditional love., September 27, 2006

By 

Cady Hayden "Children's Book Author" (Bergenfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Loves Me? (Hardcover)

Nicely dialogued story between a girl and her cat regarding family, pets and friends loving you even if you are cranky. Unconditional love is expressed here through soft orange and warming yellow watercolors. The pictures look professional even though they have a hint of crayon look to them as if a child helped to design this book-it adds to the story. This book gives you a sunny happy feeling great to share with children.

5.0 out of 5 stars Assurance kids need, November 17, 2005

By 

Debbie Malean "reader of books" (Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who Loves Me? (Hardcover)

Sadly the negative, bitter review I read on this book speaks volumes of parents who forget that children need assurance that they are loved. To the reviewer that wrote it was not for them, I think it really was for you. You have a child, who needs love. This book is only a sample of ways we as adult can assure our children we love them. Your situation is no different from everyone else. The book is merely a landscape you can paint the ways you love her and who in your famil loves her.
I found the book to be warm and rich in color. The pictures with the words were like being rocked to sleep, as bedtime stories do. I found it a good book to answer the childrens fears in a world full of hate, violence and craziness, who loves me? This is a well written and beautifully illustrated book to assure children they are loved. Thanks for the book! I have made sure my nieces and nephews and grandkids all have this book.