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PRESCHOOL
Barnett, Mac

What Is Love?

40 pp. | Chronicle | October, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4521-7640-6 $17.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Carson Ellis. A young man narrates a story looking back at his childhood. When as a small boy he asks his grandmother what love is, she takes him in her arms and suggests he find the answer out in the world. Setting off on foot, as captured in richly colored gouache illustrations by Ellis (The Shortest Day, rev. 11/19; In the Half Room, rev. 9/20), he queries those he meets along the way, including a fisherman, an actor, a carpenter, and a cat. Most of the declarations, depicted via Ellis's distinctive hand-lettering ("love is..."), confuse him. Love is a fish, says the fisherman. Love is applause, says the actor. The boy's responses are frequently blunt (fish are "slimy" and have "creepy eyes") and digressive: to the carpenter's analogy describing love as a house, he responds, "I'm not allowed to use hammers. Once I busted my thumb." These comments bring humor and a childlike authenticity to a topic often addressed with excessive sentimentality. Each time the boy is given an answer and rejects it, those he had queried sigh at him: "You do not understand." Time passes; the boy grows taller and older. It isn't until he arrives home--possessing some wisdom, and reunited with his grandmother (whom he lifts tenderly into his arms)--that he feels like he has found his answer. This moving, but never cloying, book--a specialty of author Barnett (Extra Yarn, rev. 1/12; A Polar Bear in the Snow, rev. 9/20)--will have children putting their inferencing skills to work to identify the theme in the various responses. Ellis's subtle details are gratifying--especially the grandmother's cozy pink house, the book's beating heart. Wholly lovable.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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