Anita Jeram's Guess How Much I Love You is a darling story of a little hare and his father trying to demonstrate how much they love each other. This book is a winner of the Abby Award, and will quickly become apparent why. The delicate pictures are given a soft, warm glow with water colors and just the right amount of detail like the hare's fur and leaves on the trees. The pictures fade to white by the edges of the pages where the words are, to help keep the words easy to focus on. The font is large and the sentences are the perfect length for beginning readers - this is a story you can literally read together.
This is a wonderful way to bond with your child and tell or show them how much you love them, just like the hare and his father. Your child will have fun stretching their imagination trying to think of all the creative and silly ways they can say how much they love someone. They may want to mimic the hares' actions, or know if you can jump as high as Big Nutbrown Hare. With all the encouragement for warm hugs and snuggles, this will quickly become a bedtime story favorite for you both.
This story touched my heart, as I remember playing this same game with my parents when I was little. It was difficult to try and find the words to show how much love I felt for them - but that never stopped me from trying. The phrase we all agreed on in the end was, "I love you to the end of the ponies" (I was a huge My Little Pony fan, so that was a very high complement). I look forward to reading this story with my own children someday and seeing what we can come up with to express our love.
--Audra