I LOVE YOU MORE

A mother expresses her timeless and unconditional love for her baby in Li’s picture book.

This work for young children opens with Deigert’s crisp, textured full-color image of a mother with light-brown skin and brown hair holding a smiling baby boy in front of a brightly colored background of grass, mountains, flowers, and sky: “My dear baby, / I LOVE YOU. Every day, I promise / to love you a little more.” Li’s rhyming verses further elaborate on the mom’s commitment to her child, while all-caps statements in the center of each short page express her feelings simply and straightforwardly: “I’M PROUD OF YOU,” “I WILL BE HERE,” “DON’T GROW UP TOO FAST.” The baby gets older on each page until he’s a young preschooler racing ahead of his mom as nearby rabbits race still faster; on the final page he’s small again, snuggled in his mother’s arms against a starry sky. The bright, high-contrast pictures in this book will appeal to young eyes. Not all of the rhymes are precise, but the overall tone of the work is earnest throughout. Overall, Li presents a simple read-aloud for young children that emphasizes the bond between mother and child and the willingness of a mom to provide care, support, and consistency.

A motherhood-centered children’s book that’s sweet and to the point