From sunrise to sunset, a young otter and his mom count the ways they love each other.
Miko’s mother kisses his paws as he awakens (“One, two, three, four, five little kisses for five little Miko toes”). “I love you one, two, three, four, five!” replies Miko. Mom cheerfully responds, “And I love YOU six, seven, eight, nine, ten.” That’s a whole lot of love, but Miko and his mom have much more counting to do. At the river, Miko gathers blossoms in his paws: “I love you as much as all these yellow flowers!” Mom estimates that there must be around 20 flowers. In the water, Mom tells Miko, “I love you as much as all these little fish.” “There must be 100 of them,” Miko shouts. The two compare their love to the thousands of pebbles on the beach; they stack the small stones, which suddenly fall, and Miko worries that maybe there could be too much love. Mom calms his fears: “I could count on and on and on and never reach the end of my love for you.” The love is palpable in both Baker’s utterly sweet text and Julian’s softly hued illustrations; depictions of fields of brightly colored flowers, crisp blue waters full of fish, and a vast starry sky at night offer many opportunities to attempt to quantify this pair’s overflowing love. An enumerative tale full of familial warmth. (Picture book. 3-6)–Kirkus Reviews
