I Love You Through and Through

As a new parent, the one thing above all else that I hope I am able to teach my baby is that she is loved, no matter what.

Little wonder that Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak's "I Love You Through and Through" is one of my favourite board books in Charlotte's library.

This book is sweet. A toddler and his teddy bear illustrate the rhyming story of everything that Mommy or Daddy (or whoever the reader may be) loves about baby. Baby's happy side. Baby's sad side. Baby's silly side, and mad side.

Remarkably, Rossetti-Shustak has managed to write a book which explains the concept of unconditional love in a manner that babies, as they grow and begin to understand language and its meaning, will surely grasp. What more can you ask for in a book?

I have to admit, I have had a misty-eyed moment or two while reading this to Charlotte (which is saying a lot, I'm not a teary kind of person generally).

Caroline Jayne Church's illustrations are fitting and wonderful. The little boy and his teddy are bold and bright, and really stand out against each page's subtle, interesting background. The image on the cover is quite indicative of what you will find inside.

Best of all, baby enjoys this book (almost) as much as I do! When it comes right down to it, I suppose that is all that matters, isn't it?

Charlotte always has a favourite page; in this book, she just loves the page that features a close-up of the little boy's face. She impresses me every time we arrive at this place in the book: she points to his eye and says "eye!" (which admittedly sounds more like "ahh" than "eye". It's cute as heck). She has been pointing at eyes and saying "ahh" for the past few weeks. My eye, Daddy's eye, eyes on toys -- even when I haven't shown her where this toy or that's "ahh" is before. But pointing out the eye here is especially impressive. This eye seems rather abstract. It's a dot, for heaven's sakes!

A second ritual (that she was actually doing long before she ever started pointing out the eye) occurs when we read the "I love your ears and nose" page. She turns around and points to MY nose. It's also very cute.

We love this book. I highly recommend it. Would surely make a perfect baby shower gift too!

Scholastic Canada - I Love You Through and Through
@ Amazon.com & Amazon.ca