School Library Journal Review
PreS-In the vein of Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995) or even Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny (HarperCollins, 1942), this book allows parents to express how deeply they care for their children. Written in a series of rhyming verses, it features a mother raccoon who tells her son how much she loves him throughout a day spent mostly at the beach, such as "If I could,/I'd paint the flowers/to brighten all/your waking hours." While the narrative is addressed to the child, the rhyming scheme seems forced and the sentiments seem more geared to adults than to youngsters. The illustrations, too, celebrate the things that parents love most about their children, such as their natural curiosity about the world. Denise's illustrations show the mother raccoon and her toddler son going through their active day in terrific detail. Their love for one another is apparent in the details-the hand holding, the sweet smiles. Unfortunately, the warm illustrations are not enough to keep preschoolers involved in this story.-Susan E. Murray, Glendale Public Library, AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A raccoon mother shepherds her toddler son through his daily routine, all the while expounding upon how she'd like to make the world even more wonderful for her beloved child. Although it may seem cantankerous to hold maternal sentiments to the highest standards of logic, some of this mother's musings seem off-kilter: "If I could, I'd rouse the sun/and make it shine/ till day is done," she declares--but the sun already does that anyway without Mom. It's a good thing, then, that Denise's (illustrator of the Redwall picture books) acrylic-and-charcoal vignettes possess such emotional vividness; they're a warm, more traditional relative of the work of Lynn Munsinger. Any quibbles with the text soon fade in the face of scenes like the one in which the mother raccoon takes a moment from preparing dinner to gaze with quiet adoration at her plump, furry offspring, who's happily banging away on a toy xylophone before an audience of old-fashioned stuffed toys. And the tiny verbal surprise at the end leaves parent and child readers basking in tenderness. Ages 2-6. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved