BEAR HUGS

Adult animals shower love on their little ones.

This board book is all about love, specifically the love caregivers have for their children. In second-person text that uses an abcb rhyme scheme, little readers are given praise and colorful nicknames. “Doodlebug,” “sweetheart,” “sugar plum,” “champ,” and more are on offer. The book encourages cuddling and ends with a call for a big bear hug. The gently stylized figures and muted color scheme make this board book stand out visually, but beyond this superficial difference there is little that truly grabs the attention from others on the shelf. The foxes, rabbits, bears, and monkeys are all suitably adorable and will probably entertain young readers that have just begun to sit still for read-alouds. The compositions are sometimes overbusy and the visual metaphors strained. As an adult owl calls its baby a “yummy little cupcake,” the baby appears with pink feathers, green wings, and a leafy topknot, for all the world like a small flying strawberry hovering over a pastry—a picture that may be quite difficult for little ones to decode.

Still, adults looking for a read-aloud snuggle could do worse than this softly worded examination of love and the words we use to express it.