``Said the mother bear to her child,/`I love you as much as the forest has trees''': eight animals utter similar comparisons, sometimes involving food (the sheep loves the lamb ``as much as the grass''), which is logical; but at least one is curiously inapt--the camel loves ``her child...as much as the desert is dry.'' Sorensen provides sweeping double-spread paintings with appealing mother-child pairs, concluding with humans, but, overall, this is a slight effort. The author's The First Song Ever Sung (May 1993, received too late for review) also has a very simple text in which an idea is reiterated with so little variety that the repeated words begin to grate. Song, however, is far more successful--both because the concept is more original and because it rejoices in the splendidly creative illustrations of Ed Young. (Picture book. 2-5)
