before friends

“More, More, More, “Said the Baby: Three Love Stories. By Vera B. Williams. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1990.

Each of these stories celebrates the joy that adults and children can feel with each other. In each vignette, a little child is introduced to the reader by his or her nickname. Then each little child launches into action “so fast” that their loving caretaker has to move “like anything just to catch that baby up.” But each child is indeed caught up and kissed. The simple structure of this book offers a reader the same familiar comfort that the children in the story so plainly feel. The illustrations, with the children in saturated shades of peach, dark toffee, and honey, are rendered as energetic as the children themselves by virtue of Williams’s visible brushstrokes. This book is so right for reading with one beloved child.