Yummiest Love by Lisa McCourt, Laura J. Bryant

Publishers Weekly

Starring an excitingly large and fuzzy bear and a tricycle-riding cub, McCourt's (the Stinky Face books) latest celebrates a parent's love. "I love your wild belly laugh-/ so delicious to my ears,/ I'd do my silly face a hundred times/ just to hear it again and again," writes McCourt; Bryant (God Gave Us You) tamps down the notion of "wild," showing a delighted cub rather politely applauding the parent's silly-face routine. More domestic humor follows ("I love your never-ending surprises./ Like when you hate broccoli./ Then it's your favorite./ Then you hate it./ Then it's your favorite") and Bryant's well-dressed bears have a wonderful time sledding and splashing and celebrating. McCourt's sweet sentiments will reassure youngest readers, but expressions of love this fervent may make strike some older children as uncomfortably mushy: "I love... the warmth of your small body/ and the beautiful beating/ of your perfect little heart." If a book could be a piece of Valentine's Day candy, this would be it. Ages 3-5. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

PreS-K

A treacly treatise on love. It includes such sentiments as, "It seems impossible that I could love you more each day/but that is what happens./You keep changing and growing and that will never stop./All I can do is hang on for the ride." Despite its moments of humor-"I love your never-ending surprises./Like when you hate broccoli./Then it's your favorite..."-the text bows under the weight of its sentimentality and, in the end, comes off as a laundry list. Bryant's cuddly personified bears, who wear clothes and read books, are appealingly sweet, and are a good match for the text. They often overfill the pages, giving readers a sense of the all-encompassing love they embody. Different seasons are represented, portraying the constancy of the parent's love. Leave this for grandparents to buy as gifts and pick up a copy of Todd Parr's The I Love You Book (Little, Brown, 2009), which has the humor and universality that this title lacks.-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT

Kirkus Reviews

A bear parent and child celebrate their love together. With a direct address to the cub, the parent bear describes the affectionate: "I love the snuddle we invented- / a cross between a snuggle and a cuddle, / but better and warmer than either of them." And so on. Whether the child is stinky or clean, broccoli-hating or -loving, parental love is constant. Bryant's bears seem to owe a bit to Sendak's, but the full-color spreads show little of the master's subtlety. Mercifully, McCourt abjures a rhyming text, but otherwise this love-fest does little to stand out from the crowd. (Picture book. 2-5)

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