I LOVE CHOCOLATE

Let us stuff our caloric worries away and now praise, in read-aloud voice, chocolate—that giver of happiness and succor and stomachaches. “The only hard part about loving chocolate is eating too much,” notes a grim-faced urchin at the close of this salute to the sweet. Calì suggests many reasons to celebrate chocolate: because it comes in so many, always pleasing, ways, shapes and means; because it takes the sting out of hard times; because it makes every day a special one; because you have to take a bite out of each one in a sampler to see what’s inside. There are, in fact, so many reasons that it feels as though he’s grasping for material by the end. But the very young target audience won’t mind, and they are sure to be captive to Daviddi’s wry artwork. The characters have the elemental sophistication of stone pictographs come to life, with great, stick-figure maws ever ready for chocolate insertion. The colors are gorgeous and, appropriately, are reminiscent of a Wayne Thiebaud cupcake—chocolate, of course. (Picture book. 2-5)