If Animals Said I Love You

August 15, 2017
Paul and Walker team up again to present the youngest listeners with an "I love you" book.Their previous book If Animals Kissed Good Night (2008) looked at the various ways parents might smooch their little ones and both emphasized the animals' physical traits and provided names for their young. This latest does the former (partially) with regard to animals' actions but, sadly, not the latter. The verses remain bouncy and fun to read aloud, however; in answering the titular prompt, "Secretary bird would type with claw feet / warm, tender words with a click-clack beat," and "Impala would speak with a leapity-leap. / 'I love you, my grandchild, a heapity-heap.' " Love isn't reserved for just parent and child: siblings, cousins, and friends also get in on the act. Walker's adorable animals freely share their love, a gorilla and infant appearing multiple times throughout; the book ends with them snuggled together asleep. Other animals include whale, boa, lion, cheetah, spider, ostrich, and alligator. Only one shows a grouping that could be construed as a nuclear family of two parents and children. Surely adult and child pairs reading this together will find ways to mimic the animals' ways of expressing their love: blowing bubbles and splashing in the tub, a boa-like "squish-hugging squeeze," and playful wrestling. (Picture book. 2-6)

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January 1, 2018

PreS-Full of loving and silly animal relationships, this second collaboration between Paul and Walker is comforting but also predictable. Each animal pair shows their love in active ways, like the lion cousins who "tussle and tumble, romp and roll in a joyful love jumble," or an impala grandma who speaks with a "leapity-leap." Walker's illustrations are soft, rounded, pastel renderings of the different kinds of love between parents, siblings, and friends. Paul's rhyme scheme has pleasing onomatopoeia moments and includes an array of unusual animals, such as a "click-clack"ing secretary bird. VERDICT This animal lovefest will appeal to fans of If Animals Kissed Goodnight, but readers looking for uniqueness or inclusiveness should look elsewhere.-Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, Beavercreek, OH

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018
Circling back periodically to a gorilla mother and child, sprightly rhymes use well-chosen words to tell how various animals might say "I love you." "Lion and cousins would tussle and tumble, / romp and roll in a joyful love jumble." As in If Animals Kissed Good Night, Walker's complementary art uses soft rounded shapes to enhance the affectionate tone of the text.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)