COUNT THE WAYS, LITTLE BROWN BEAR

The title character asks his mother to quantify her love for him, and she good-heartedly obliges, finding examples throughout the day for every number from 1 to 10. "I love you more than you love two green apples plus two red apples," she says, then picks all four for her son to eat. After a day of showing that she loves him more than everything from pies to teddy bears, Mother Brown Bear tucks in her child with "I love you more than all the stars in the sky," and Little Brown Bear falls asleep, appropriately enough, counting. London's (Ice Bear and Little Fox) text is sweet and succinct, though it adds little to the bedtime or parental love genre. Mother Bear appears as somewhat wooden rather than maternally substantial, and both bears' heads seem clumsily affixed to their bodies. But newcomer Moore shows real aesthetic strength and emotional depth in her close-up work, and the affection between the characters is never in doubt. Ages 2-5. (Jan.)