Product Description
With bright, watercolor collages, My Love for You Is Like a Garden celebrates unconditional love with vibrant garden scenes that will delight fans of Lois Ehlert and Eric Carle. Perfect for baby showers, bedtime read-alouds, or anyone you love!
Say "I love you" with this charming picture book families will love reading together over and over again. Bold, colorful illustrations of flowers, butterflies, and animals will inspire readers of all ages to explore the natural world--and maybe even plant their own garden. Children will delight in finding ladybugs hidden throughout, and a glossary provides the names of each plant and animal featured. A beautiful book to share with a child, parent, or anyone who means the world to you!
"Endearing, engaging text pairs well with gorgeously executed illustrations for a joyful read." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Ideal for so many occasions: Bedtime read-alouds Baby shower gift for new parents Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or Father's Day gifts Teachers and librarians looking for a garden-themed book Holiday stocking or Easter basket stuffer Birthdays and more!
Review
"Smetana's picture book compares feelings of love to different elements of a garden. Opening with its title, this work uses simple nonrhyming sentences to describe love, using various metaphors that encourage youngsters to engage all their senses. Love is said to be as "tender as a blade of grass," "sweet as a flowering lilac," "cheerful as the robin's song," and so on. The lines are brief but powerful and sweet, concluding with an image of two hands with different brown skin tones on either side of a bouquet, incorporating all the flowers featured in the book. However, Smetana's illustrations are truly the stars of this work. At first glance, they appear to be vibrant watercolors on paper, but closer inspection reveals each image to be a carefully trimmed and assembled collage featuring butterflies, flowers, trees, and other elements. The cut paper is arranged in ingenious ways to suggest, for example, the opened petals of a rose or furrowed soil with marigolds growing in it. The book ends with a glossary, naming various plants and animals in the book and encouraging young readers to go back and look for them all-something that they'll surely delight in doing again and again. Endearing, engaging text pairs well with gorgeously executed illustrations for a joyful read." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
About the Author
Laura Smetana is the author of several books for children, including My Love for You Is Like a Garden, Ice Cream with Grandpa: A Loving Story for Kids About Alzheimer's & Dementia (illus. by Elisabete B. P. de Moraes), which was winner of the 2022 Northern Lights Book Awards - Health Category, and Little Squiggle's Lake Adventure, which she co-authored with her son, Stirling Hebda. She loves gardening in her sunhat, marveling at each new bloom, and spending time with her family outdoors. Laura lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and son. When she isn't chasing squirrels out of her flower beds (to her family's delight), she can be found writing, talking to students at school author visits, and working on new books for kids. You can visit her at www.laurasmetana.com.
