I know Valentine’s Day has come and gone. I meant to get information about these books published sooner. Even though Valentine’s Day is over, love doesn’t require a special holiday to be felt and expressed. Love is something we can all give and feel 365 days a year.
If you are looking for children’s books about love, especially the love between a parent and a child, here are some wonderful suggestions from Candlewick Press.
Love (pictured above)
author: Robert Sabuda
Pop-up book – Ages 5- 8 Years
Book trailer: https://vimeo.com/434874573/6124dd4162
Tender expressions of the different guises of love spring from the pages of this charming pop-up book from master paper artist Robert Sabuda. Brief passages beginning with the words “I love you because . . .” are illustrated with six captivating pop-up spreads, making for a warm bedtime story, a token of affection for loved ones, and a beautiful keepsake for readers of all ages.
The ideal gift for someone you love, from the #1 New York Times best-selling pop-up artist who brought us Believe and many other celebrated 3-D books.
Guess How Much I Love You Blush Sweetheart Edition
author: Sam McBratney
Picture book – Ages 2-5 years
I love you right up to the moon—and back.
It’s a sentiment shared across the world—and a classic book treasured from one generation to the next. Now the droll tale of a big and little hare vying to love each other as high as they can hop, as far as they can reach, up to the sky and beyond, receives a captivating new treatment. With shiny rose-gold lettering, a pearlescent pale-pink cover frames Little Nutbrown Hare inside a cut-out heart—an endearing design sure to charm anyone who adores somebody more than they can measure.
Put someone you love in a rosy mood with an enchanting gift edition of the beloved classic, on Valentine’s Day or any day.
This is a classic book. I remember reading this to my children when they were little.
This book is my “go to” baby shower gift and new baby gift. Every parent and grandparent can relate to the feelings expressed in this amazing, timeless, book.
I love this special “sweetheart” version of the book. The cover is done nicely. I love the soft, pale pink cover. It’s so pretty!
How Big is Love
authors: Emma Dodd
Picture book – Ages 2 – 5 years
“Before you came I did not know just how big love can be. Love’s wider than the ocean, it’s deeper than the sea.”
Does love have a size? A family of ducks celebrates the boundless affection between them in Emma Dodd’s gentle rhyming ode to unconditional love.
Emma Dodd is now my new favorite children’s author. I fell in love with this book the first time I read it. I loved it so much that I have a few more of her books in my Amazon shopping cart. If those books are anything like this book, they are going to be “keepers.”
Often I donate books that I am sent to review to the library or a kindergarten teacher I’m friends with. Every now and then I get a book that is so special that I have to keep it. I am not going to have anymore children, but hopefully one day I’ll have grandchildren I can read this book too.
This book made me smile.
Julián at the Wedding
author: Jessica Love
Picture Book – Ages 4 to 8 years
Julián and his abuela are going to a wedding. Better yet, Julián is in the wedding. Weddings have flowers and kissing and dancing and cake. And this wedding also has a new friend named Marisol. It’s not long before Julián and Marisol set off for some magic and mischief of their own, and when things take an unexpected turn, the pair learns that everything is easier with a good friend by your side. Jessica Love returns with a joyful story of friendship and individuality in this radiant follow-up to Julián Is a Mermaid.
The star of Julián Is a Mermaid makes a joyful return—and finds a new friend—at a wedding to be remembered.
Over the Shop
author: JonArno Lawson
Picture Book – Ages 3 to 7 years
A lonely little girl and her grandparent need to fill the run-down apartment in their building. But taking over the quarters above their store will mean major renovations for the new occupants, and none of the potential renters can envision the possibilities of the space—until one special couple shows up. With their ingenuity, the little girl’s big heart, and heaps of hard work, the desperate fixer-upper begins to change in lovely and surprising ways. In this bustling wordless picture book, JonArno Lawson’s touching story and Qin Leng’s gentle illustrations capture all angles of the building’s transformation, as well as the evolving perspectives of the girl and her grandparent. A warm and subtly nuanced tale, Over the Shop throws open the doors to what it means to accept people for who they are and to fill your home with love and joy.
In a beautifully detailed wordless picture book, a tumbledown building becomes home sweet home for a found family.
ROMANCE FOR TEENS:
Everything I Thought I Knew (pictured below)
author: Shannon Takaoka
Fiction Novel – Ages 14 and up
Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste. Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves—which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.) And that’s not all that’s strange. There’s also the vivid recurring nightmare about crashing a motorcycle in a tunnel and memories of people and places she doesn’t recognize. Is there something wrong with her head now, too, or is there another explanation for what she’s experiencing? As she searches for answers, and as her attraction to Kai intensifies, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew—about life, death, love, identity, and the true nature of reality.
A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.
For more information about these and other books from Candlewick Press, visit Candlewickpress.com. The publisher can also be found on social media.
Do you have a favorite story about love? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.
Kimberly
*I received free sample copies to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
