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DO YOU LOVE ME? by Dick Gackenbach

DO YOU LOVE ME?

By

Pub Date: Aug. 4th, 1975
Publisher: Seabury

Walter, bored because his parents and older sister Boots are busy with their farm chores, tries to trap a hummingbird in their country mailbox and accidentally kills it instead. There follows a little lecture from Boots--""Not all creatures want you to love them. . . . Try a little respect first, and then wait and see what they want""--after which Walter ""shows respect"" for his fireflies, ants and turtle and lets them go. Before lunch, though, Boots disappears and returns with a new puppy for Walter, who names it Bird and finds that this animal does want his love. More lesson than literature, but the lesson is a useful one and Gackenbach's sympathetic drawings of the appealingly plain children and their rural background give it a nice relaxed feeling.