MORE AND MORE

A monkey parent expresses love for all the bits and pieces of a monkey child.

The mother or father, not specified, reiterates how he or she loves every little thing about the child, every little activity, every little mood and emotion, every little game and every little range of behavior. This love is constant and everlasting and grows, until finally the ode concludes, “I love you more and more!” The repetitious text is mere fodder for the gold-foiled illustrations that feature parent and child in page-filling close-ups. The artwork is digitally rendered and imparts a very human visage to the little monkey’s face, hands and toes. In a double-page spread that evokes Valentine’s Day cards, the parent sits with arm around the child as their two tails entwine in a heart. In a companion title, Always, Dodd conveys her message of unconditional love through an elephant with similar moods and actions as the monkey. Even more foil embellishes the artwork in this volume, albeit this time in silver meant to evoke the African savanna. A similar cuddly finale finds elephant and child in a trunk-size embrace accompanied by the uber-reassuring “I always love you!”

High on message and low on content.