You're All My Favorites
PreSchool-K–The creators ofGuess How Much I Love You(Candlewick, 1995) offer another reassuring tale. Each night, Mommy and Daddy Bear tuck in their three beloved cubs with the same phrase, "You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!" Well, even little bears are discerning enough to doubt hyperbole and so they question their mother's empirical basis for this observation. Her reply, "Because your daddy told me," mollifies the youngsters until they begin to question their own ability to measure up to the wonderfulness standard. The first worries that he doesn't have patches like the others, the second that she's not a boy, and the third that he's the littlest. They approach their father with the query, "Who is your favorite? We can't all be the best." Daddy Bear explains that they are, repeating how Mommy Bear exclaimed over each of them at their birth ("the most perfect first baby bear," "the most perfect second baby bear," etc.). Satisfied, the trio is able to drift off into peaceful slumber. The quiet, loving tone of the text is echoed in the muted shades of the watercolor-and-pencil illustrations offset by soothing cream-colored backgrounds. While this story will not be enough to put to rest children's basic insecurities and endless jockeying for their parents' most-favored status, it does inject some unobtrusive bibliotherapy into a deftly presented bedtime story.–Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.