Do You Love Me?
PreSchool-Grade 1&mdash;Slightly offbeat, slick computerized illustrations give this paean to parental love an unusual and effective new twist. The rhyming text, clearly intended to be a dialogue between a variety of children and their caregivers, is concise and to the point: "do you love me?/always, dear./do you need me?/ever near." It continues in this vein, ending with: "hug me, hold me./snug and tight./snuzzle closer./kiss good night." With no more than two sentences per page, some of them fragments, the text is easily accessible to the youngest listeners, as well as beginning readers. The artwork, done in bright primary colors on solid backgrounds, depicts close-ups of the faces of large-nosed, round-eyed, mouthless Q-Bertesque creatures. The surprisingly appealing characters, which resemble everything from bears to rabbits to elephants, are portrayed touching noses on most spreads. The reassuring language, soothing rhythm, and charming characters will hold young listeners' attention and likely have a soporific effect at bedtime. A refreshing addition for libraries looking for something a little bit different to spice up their picture-book collections.&mdash;Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CTCopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.