Like So

“We got love,” rejoice the child and caregiver at the center of this rhapsodic work, which takes on a sweeping dimension through Forman’s poetic descriptions of a natural world that’s built on affection. Just as the Black-presenting duo exult in their devotion to each other (“I hug you like so// You hug me like so”), they find the moon, the sun, the days, the trees, and so on also “got love like so,” per a rhythmic refrain. Light infuses Figueroa’s smudgy landscapes, which abound with botanicals and butterflies, and this luminosity extends into concluding nighttime winter scenes of the figures building a snowman beneath a velvety sky dotted with pricks of snow and stars (“night sky got love like so/ star glow got love like so”). Just like the protagonists’ gentle opening embrace, text and art communicate a tender and expansive loving-kindness. Ages 1–4. (Jan.)