I Love You, Too!

Foreman (Friends) offers a familiar bedtime story with echoes of a modern classic of the genre, Guess How Much I Love You. As in that book, a young animal (in this case a golden-furred anthropomorphic bear) attempts to quantify his boundless love for a parent—while also hoping to postpone lights-out. After his bedtime story, Little Bear sets his imagination free, comparing his love for Dad to natural phenomena that reach toward infinity (“I love you more than all the snowflakes of winter,” says Little Bear. “And more than all the flowers of summer”), to which his father repeatedly responds, “I love you even more. Now go to sleep.” Foreman’s bold watercolors have a comforting, homespun resonance as Little Bear and Dad tromp through fields of snow and flowers in plaid robes and striped pajamas, and even fly among the stars. Eventually, they return to the bedroom where Little Bear gets the last line—and laugh. Readers young and old should easily recognize themselves in Foreman’s portrait of a patient, long-suffering adult and a sly child whose delay tactics prove very effective. Ages 4–9. (Mar.)