My Love Will Be with You

by Laura Krauss Melmed, Henri Sorensen (Illustrator)

Overview

Said the father monkey to his child, "Someday you'll climb to the tops of the trees."

Said the father dolphin to his child, "Someday you'll swim off to faraway seas."

From the author and illustrator of I Love You As Much . . . comes this tender lullaby of enduring devotion from a father to his child.

From now until always, I want you to know my love will be with you wherever you go.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061552601
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/21/2009
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Laura Krauss Melmed is author of Capital! Washington D.C. from A to Z and New York, New York! The Big Apple from A to Z, also illustrated by Frané Lessac; I Love You As Much . . . , illustrated by Henri Sorensen; and the critically acclaimed The Rainbabies, illustrated by Jim LaMarche. She lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.

Henri Sorensen is the illustrator of I Love You As Much . . . , also by Laura Krauss Melmed; Wishes for You by Tobi Tobias; and The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt. He lives in Denmark with his wife and two daughters.

Editorial Reviews

A companion to this author-illustrator team's previous effort, I Love You as Much..., which focused on motherly love, this cuddly picture book instead celebrates the relationship between fathers and their children. Each spread features stirring images of a papa and baby animal pair in their natural habitat, and a couplet of verse containing words of wisdom spoken by the elder, e.g., "Said the father panda to his child, 'Someday you'll snuggle your own cub and dream.' " The cozy and warm-toned oil portraits of a father lion licking his cub, awash in golden sunlight, and of a majestic eagle watching over his chick in their lofty mountain nest, are the perfect pairing for the text's gentle rhythm and rhyme scheme. Though certain to tug especially at parents' heartstrings, the reassuring words here will have kids clamoring to share some quiet time reading this book with someone they love. Ages 2-7.
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Publishers Weekly

Many of us have read and reread I Love You As Much… by this same duo. Now they have collaborated to produce a book that highlights fathers. The fathers range from an eagle in the snow capped mountains who tells his child that "Someday you'll soar through a high mountain pass," to a daddy lion tending its cub and a father otter explaining to his child that he will fish in a clear stream. Even the common pigeon and the more exotic badger and monkey are part of this paean to fatherhood. The little ones are shown on one side of the spread with their nurturing parent, while on the other side of the spread, the infant is all grown up. It is usually the mother, however, and not the father who tends to raise young in the wild, so while the message is warm and reassuring, the pictures of the animals are so realistic that they may reinforce the belief that all of these animals take an active role in parenting, which they do not. Male pigeons and eagles certainly participate in raising their young, and monkeys tend to be quite social with males and females in the same troop, but then again, this is not a nature book. It is a story about love, and Laura and Henri have used their combination of poetry and paintings to translate the feelings, hopes, and dreams that fathers have about their offspring into something that all of us can understand. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

An unapologetically sentimental companion to the pair's 1993 goo-fest, I Love You as Much . . . , this Father's Day offering presents a series of animal fathers offering patterned assurances to their babies: "Said the father eagle to his child, / ‘Someday you'll soar through a high mountain pass.' / Said the father lion to his child, / ‘Someday you'll hunt in the long, waving grass.' " Sorensen's oil montages are equally formulaic, placing cute father-child pairs on the left and the now-grown animal fulfilling its destiny on the right. The hyperrealism of the art undercuts the whole effect with their accuracy, the images on the page warring with the scientific truth that most, if not all, of these male animals are not exactly famed for their paternally nurturing characteristics. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews