I Love You as Much...
- Book Review,
by Laura Krauss Melmed
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1-Written in quatrains that break into couplets across each double page, this lullaby rhyme catalogues various animals and their offspring, describing each mother's testament of love. The mountain nanny goat says, "'I love you as much as the mountain is steep'"; the camel says, "'I love you as much as the desert is dry.'" The book ends with a full quatrain of love poetry from a woman to her newborn child. Sorensen's paintings are large and bright, spanning double-page spreads and extending to the edge of each page, with full backgrounds and panoramic views that enhance the animal characters. The deep tones, well-lit landscapes (which contrast effectively with the darkness of the final picture), and the multiple layers of opaque paint suggest a formality of portraiture that is not usually seen in children's books. The text, which is discretely tucked away in the corners of the pages where it does not interrupt the effect of the illustration, is set in a decorative italic font. The potential for sentimentality is certainly present, but Melmed carefully avoids the cute and tearful. While reading this book is certainly a satisfying experience, full of pathos and meaning for parents, it's likely to appeal more to them than to their children.Ruth K. MacDonald, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, CTCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Publishers Weekly
A soothing poem extolling the comfort of a mother's love forms the heart of this gentle picture book.... A tender lullaby that may come in for wear and tear from the hugs of grateful young readers. Ages 3 mos.-up. (starred review)
Booklist
Ages 3-5. This simple picture book has a reassuring rhyming text and more than agreeably pleasant watercolors. One mother-child pair is shown in a natural setting on each double-page spread. The popularity of animal families with young readers and the comforting, rhythmic text combine to create an appealing title for bedtime reading. Concluding with a human mother and her child, Melmed writes: "Now sleep, child of mine, while the stars shine above-I love you as much as a mother can love."
The New York Times Book Review
Inviting, naturalistic drawings of mother and baby animals - goats, geese, whales, camels, bears - [are] tenderly rendered by the Danish illustrator Henri Sorensen. The light-drenched, golden toned pictures exert a quietly hypnotic effect on both reader and listener, aided by the lullaby's sonorous repetition of each mother animal's love poem to her baby.... the sort of comforting bedtime soporific that has delivered generations of children, young and older, into deep, safe slumber.
School Library Journal
Written in quatrains that break into couplets across each double page, this lullaby rhyme catalogues various animals and their offspring, describing each mother's testament of love.... certainly a satisfying experience.
From Kirkus Reviews
``Said the mother bear to her child,/`I love you as much as the forest has trees''': eight animals utter similar comparisons, sometimes involving food (the sheep loves the lamb ``as much as the grass''), which is logical; but at least one is curiously inapt--the camel loves ``her child...as much as the desert is dry.'' Sorensen provides sweeping double-spread paintings with appealing mother-child pairs, concluding with humans, but, overall, this is a slight effort. The author's The First Song Ever Sung (May 1993, received too late for review) also has a very simple text in which an idea is reiterated with so little variety that the repeated words begin to grate. Song, however, is far more successful--both because the concept is more original and because it rejoices in the splendidly creative illustrations of Ed Young. (Picture book. 2-5) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Celebrate Mother's Day every day. This celebration of the bond between mothers and their babies can be shared at naptime or bedtimeor whenever it is time to say "I love you.""Written in quatrains that break into couplets across each double page, this lullaby rhyme catalogues various animals and their offspring, describing each mother's testament of love." School Library Journal."The light-drenched, golden-toned pictures exert a quietly hypnotic effect on both reader and listener, aided by the lullaby's sonorous repetition of each mother animal's love poem to her baby." New York Times
Card catalog description
A variety of mothers tell their children how much they love them.
About the Author
Laura Krauss Melmed grew up in New York City, where the library was one of her favorite places. I was always staggering home with giant armloads of books, she says, and I must have read every fairytale book there was.The red one, the blue one, the green one all of them. Laura s first book, The Rainbabies, with illustrations by Jim LaMarche, was published to critical acclaim in 1992. Her second book, The First Song Ever Sung, with illustrations by Ed Young, was published in 1993. I Love You As Much , with illustrations by Henri Sorensen,is her third book. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their three children. In Her Own Words..."When I was growing up, my parents and I lived at the Thomas Edison Apartments in New York City along with ninety-nine other families. It was a hodgepodge of backgrounds and religions. Everyone knew everyone, and folks often left their front doors unlocked. Plenty of kids on all six floors kept an only child like me from feeling lonely."Our building had secret spaces and play places from top to bottom. The basement was a dusky den of mystery, where washing machines shimmied like belly dancers, and a monster boiler crouched behind a soot-covered window at the end of a cobwebby ramp. On summer days the roof became our beach or a theater where we performed plays I wrote and directed (starring me and my best friend, of course). Our tree-shaded neighborhood had a big playground and a store that sold magic tricks. To this day I thrive on the energy of cities."But then, I longed to visit far-off worlds of excitement. Since we didn't own a car, I figured out how to do this while tucked into bed or curled up in an armchair. Books, I found, could take me anywhere. It started with the beautiful picture books my mother borrowed for me from the public library. (I soon knew Madeline and A Child's Garden of Verses by heart.) Then, though my parents were of modest means, they let me collect dozens of Little Golden Books by such writers and artists as Margaret Wise Brown, Garth Williams, and Ruth Krauss."After learning to read I discovered fairy tales, especially Hans Christian Andersen's, and the Rainbow Fairy Books of Andrew Lang. I lost myself in tangled forests filled with elves and trolls, loyal sisters, and fools who were wiser than kings, though not as clever as talking cats. Folktales, fairy tales, and myths still fascinate me."My tastes broadened, and I lugged home stacks of library books, trading sore arms for the magic between shiny covers. I wrote, too--plays, poems, and stories with pictures. I told my friends horror tales after Edgar Allan Poe that made our hair stand up. Yet I had no clue I could become an author. Obviously, real people wrote the books I devoured. But I was concerned with the stories, not with the people who wrote them. When I did think about authors, it was with complete awe. Then, too, how could writing be a job like the one my tired father returned from each evening?"Two degrees (including a master's in early childhood education) and two careers later, things changed. A poem I wrote to answer my son's question became my picture book The First Song Ever Sung. I wrote The Rainbabies and others. Like my father's job writing is hard work. But it is also great fun. I want each of my stories to seem as timeless as the folk and fairy tales I love, yet as fresh as a just-bathed baby."I will always love to read. I also like running, hiking in the country, and cooking for family and friends. I live in Washington, D.C., with my husband, Allan, a physician, and our children, Stephanie, Jonathan, and Michael. A pale orange cat adopted us several years ago, and we own a matching goldfish."
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