Will You Still Love Me, If . . . ?

by Catherine Leblanc, Eve Tharlet (Illustrator)

Overview

An imaginative journey through a child's big questions about the nature of a mother's loveLittle Bear is worried. Just how much does his mom love him? What if he does something really bad? What if something bad happens to her? But a mother's love is strong, and as Little Bear finds out, nothing can change that.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781495602269
Publisher:	minedition
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Catherine Leblanc is the author of many books for children including How to Demolish Dinosaurs and How to Mash Monsters. Eve Tharlet is the illustrator of the Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox books, A Promise Is a Promise, and Sharing Christmas.

Editorial Reviews

"A little bear seeks reassurance from his mother that she will always love him.....sensitively takes readers into an emotional frontier rarely explored." —Kirkus Reviews

"A truly beautiful ode to mother/child love, Leblanc's gorgeous picture book...[is the] perfect bedtime read-aloud." —Lee Littlewood, Kids Home Library

"We all make mistakes, just like Little Bear. He worries. [But] Mama tells Little Bear she’ll always love him. No matter what." —Imagination Soup

From the Publisher

While Little Bear's mother is mending the jacket he ripped when he was playing, she answers his questions of whether she would love him if he misbehaved. For example, if he did not do any work at school, or if he tore ALL his clothes. She responds that she would be disappointed or very angry but that she would still love him. When he asks if she should die would she still love him, it takes her a moment to answer his question. She does, with a beautiful response, adding that "I'm not dead yet." Knowing that there will soon be a new baby, he asks for reassurance which she provides. He is then ready to go off in his mended jacket with a friend. Tharlet's illustrations show a warm parent/child relationship and provide an upbeat perspective. Mama and her preschooler are wonderfully expressive. Little Bear wears a shirt. Mama Bear does not wear human clothes. The question about death sets this apart from the usual "will you love me"-style books. It is only a small part of the book, but it may just help a child who has a parent who is ill. Through the exuberant preschool antics and the quiet moments, Mama Bear is present, offering reassurance to her little one. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo

Children's Literature - Sharon Salluzzo

2013-09-25
A little bear seeks reassurance from his mother that she will always love him. At first, the question-and-answer session follows a familiar pattern. Little Bear has torn his jacket; will Mom still love him? What if he tore all his clothes? If he got bad marks at school? If he made a mess at home? With each query, Mom reassures him. To this point, there's little remarkable about this book, but then it takes an unexpected turn: "There is something that still worries Little Bear very much, but he doesn't dare ask….‘What if you died?' " Mom takes her time to answer, then tells him that of course she will, and he will feel it "deep inside." Will she ever love someone else more? he asks, looking "at her round tummy." The conversation plays itself out as Mom mends the torn jacket, Tharlet's shaggy ursines posed against vast expanses of white space, the occasional window or chair indicating a domestic interior. The end is abrupt, and readers accustomed to resolution will feel that the loving dialogue has been cut off with a couple page turns yet to go. It honors the attention span of genuine preschoolers, though, realistically capturing their mercurial shifts in mood from existential wonder to absorption in immediate action. Though it initially treads some familiar territory, this European import sensitively takes readers into an emotional frontier rarely explored. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews