Forever (Emma Dodd's Love You Books)
This latest reassuring mother-and-baby story, reminiscent of the author’s No Matter What (2008), features a massive mother polar bear who reassures her cute little baby in gentle rhymes that she will always be there. The mother’s assurances that she’ll be there at playtime and scary times are heightened by the heavily outlined figures of the polar bears set off against the vast Arctic wasteland. We track the pair as they wander through a snowy forest (Dodd uses foil to embellish such scenes), as they swim through a gray sea, and to the moment where the baby polar bear looks very small and lost on the right-hand page as its mother approaches from the left: “If you’re ever feeling lost, / know that I will find you.” Bright banners of color forming the aurora borealis make a magnificent backdrop for the mother’s promise to help make the baby’s dreams come true. Not a new message, but nicely delivered with soft, comforting characters. Preschool-Kindergarten. --Connie Fletcher