If Animals Said I Love You

by Ann Whitford Paul, David Walker (Illustrator)

Overview

An unabridged board book edition of Paul and Walker's bestselling picture book, which imagines all the ways the members of the animal kingdom might express love. Full color.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374306038
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	09/11/2018
Series:	If Animals Kissed Good Night
Pages:	24
Sales rank:	118,750
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	AD630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Ann Whitford Paul is the author of the bestselling If Animals series, including If Animals Kissed Good Night, which School Library Journal calls “charming”; If Animals Went to School; If Animals Celebrated Christmas; If Animals Gave Thanks; and If Animals Tried to be Kind. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

David Walker has illustrated many books for children, including Victoria Adler’s Baby, Come Away and Ann Whitford Paul’s Little Monkey Says Good Night and If Animals Kissed Good Night. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

Full of loving and silly animal relationships. . .This animal lovefest will appeal to fans of If Animals Kissed Goodnight.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

01/01/2018
PreS—Full of loving and silly animal relationships, this second collaboration between Paul and Walker is comforting but also predictable. Each animal pair shows their love in active ways, like the lion cousins who "tussle and tumble, romp and roll in a joyful love jumble," or an impala grandma who speaks with a "leapity-leap." Walker's illustrations are soft, rounded, pastel renderings of the different kinds of love between parents, siblings, and friends. Paul's rhyme scheme has pleasing onomatopoeia moments and includes an array of unusual animals, such as a "click-clack"ing secretary bird. VERDICT This animal lovefest will appeal to fans of If Animals Kissed Goodnight, but readers looking for uniqueness or inclusiveness should look elsewhere.—Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, Beavercreek, OH

School Library Journal

2017-08-02
Paul and Walker team up again to present the youngest listeners with an "I love you" book.Their previous book If Animals Kissed Good Night (2008) looked at the various ways parents might smooch their little ones and both emphasized the animals' physical traits and provided names for their young. This latest does the former (partially) with regard to animals' actions but, sadly, not the latter. The verses remain bouncy and fun to read aloud, however; in answering the titular prompt, "Secretary bird would type with claw feet / warm, tender words with a click-clack beat," and "Impala would speak with a leapity-leap. / ‘I love you, my grandchild, a heapity-heap.' " Love isn't reserved for just parent and child: siblings, cousins, and friends also get in on the act. Walker's adorable animals freely share their love, a gorilla and infant appearing multiple times throughout; the book ends with them snuggled together asleep. Other animals include whale, boa, lion, cheetah, spider, ostrich, and alligator. Only one shows a grouping that could be construed as a nuclear family of two parents and children. Surely adult and child pairs reading this together will find ways to mimic the animals' ways of expressing their love: blowing bubbles and splashing in the tub, a boa-like "squish-hugging squeeze," and playful wrestling. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews