The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration - Book Thirty-Six

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so I thought I would review a few 'lovey dovey' titles. Here is one that hundreds of children have enjoyed since the book came out. This book was written for all those young children who worry that their parent's love might have an expiration date.

I Love You Stinky Face

Lisa McCourt

Illustrated by Cyd Moore

Picture Book

Ages 3 to 6

Scholastic, 2004, 978-0439634694

   All children need to feel loved, and there are times when they wonder if their parents might stop loving them under the right circumstance. In this story a little boy wonders - as his mother cuddles him before bedtime – if she would stop loving him if he were different. What if he were a big ape, or a smelly skunk? What if he were an alligator or a swamp creature? What if he was a “green alien from Mars” who “ate bugs instead of peanut butter?”

   Thankfully this little boy’s mother not only loves him unconditionally, she also finds wonderful answers for his questions. She tells her funny little son that, whatever he looks like, however badly he smells, and whatever strange things he eats, she will always be there for him, she will always take care of him, and she will always love him.

   Delightful and amusing illustrations show the little boy in all his imagined forms. Always, whether he is an ape, an alien, a monster, or a dinosaur, the little boy is wearing his telltale striped pajamas, and in each case his mother is there, being a mother and doing all those things that mothers do so well.

   This simple little story will make a wonderfully comforting bedtime story, and it will reassure children when they worry that they might not be loveable any more.