Do You Know How Much I Love You?

An adult and a child strolling hand-in-hand past a garden prompt this declaration of love: ``I love you more than . . . all the petals . . . on all the flowers . . . in all the gardens . . .'' Like a series of nesting boxes, the text gains layers of progressively larger contexts. Tedesco's first picture book appeals to a child's fascination with building and the universal satisfaction of watching things (including abstractions like love) grow. Predictable as summer daisies and filled with cliches (the gardens all have white picket fences), Tedesco's studiedly childlike watercolors nonetheless keep pace with the fast-flowing, single-sentence text. By its example, the book extends a tacit invitation to readers to invent and adapt their own games. Ages 2-6. (Mar.)