I Really, Really Love You So

Praise

Ayoung animal with huge eyes and outstretched arms declares their love in many ways.

In rhyming text, a little animal—possibly a ring-tailed lemur—muses on how best to show their love (“I’d like to find a special way / to show the love in me…”). They come up with a number of outlandish ideas on their own (wrestle a crocodile, climb the biggest mountain, etc.) and consider making a gift before hitting on the idea of copying other animals to see how they convey their love. After a narrow escape from an annoyed bear, the narrator describes the feeling of love and reiterates the titular message, hugging a grown-up of the same species with homemade gifts (now completed, despite earlier frustration) scattered around. It’s a familiar premise, but the silliness of the different scenarios cuts what could otherwise be cloying sweetness. Some illustrations are full-bleed, with backgrounds of either bright solid colors or different imagined scenes (ocean, mountaintop, jungle); there is enough visual detail to hold readers’ interest on multiple rereads but not so much that anything important would be lost in a larger group read-aloud. 

Nothing groundbreaking but a sweet choice nonetheless. (Picture book. 0-3) –Kirkus Reviews