I Love Mom

In Walsh and Abbot’s third collaboration about concrete and intangible expressions of love, following The Biggest Kiss and The Perfect Hug, tiger siblings sing the praises of their active, resourceful—and attractive—mother: “When we go out/ she slips her hand in mine./ No other mother looks so fine./ No one strolling up the street/ so neat, so pretty./ And at the park nobody/ swings my swing so high./ No one brings the sky/ closer to the seesaw.” Abbot paints her toylike tigers in vibrant orange, shaped and shaded with soft pencil lines. The world the characters inhabit is one of easy solutions (“But who’d have guessed/ a mess could be/ so quick to pick up”), even tempers, and one-note rah-rah praise, but the overall mood of soothing security and familial bliss makes this a fine pick for gift-giving on Mother’s Day, as much as on Valentine’s Day. Ages 4–8. (Dec.)