How does love keep us connected?
Brimming with affection and sweetness—and sparkly wavy accents—Wells’ depiction of the magically distance-spanning powers of love may sooth both parents and their young children feeling the stress of separation. “Mama goes to work” and “Daddy goes to work” provide the framing thoughts for two linked, simple stories told through full-page paintings in rich, velvety colors and a rhyming text. The parent bunnies are shown traveling to work and at work in clean, benign workplaces (daddy in an office, mama serving cookies and cakes in a café), thoughts turning to their child bunny contentedly busy at home and at play, or waiting at a window in expectation of a parent’s return. Wells’ familiar round, whiskered bunny faces have a comfortable kindness about them. Graceful lines stamped in teal-blue foil sweep enticingly across each page, and the extravagant packaging and honey-sweet message will lure parents and doting grandparents. Wells includes on the copyright page a whimsical definition of love waves (“The externalized product of affection so vibrant and ample that it cannot be contained by a single heart alone…”) and attributes this to The Dictionary of Science (though the actual term refers to one of the kinds of surface waves of an earthquake).
Nearly too sweet, but reassuring and affecting nonetheless. (Picture book. 2-6)
