How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight?

by Varsha Bajaj, Ivan Bates (Illustrator)

Overview

With modern packaging, this board book refresh edition of the classic goodnight story with a love theme and a counting game, is perfect for bedtime and Valentine's Day

"How many kisses do you want tonight's" Daddy Bear growls, cuddling Little Bear tight. "I want ONE," laughs Little Bear, "A big, loud kiss on my soft, brown hair." How many kisses do you want, young fellow?" Mommy Duck asks, fluffing Little Duck yellow.

With simple, rhyming text, this adorable counting bedtime book celebrates the special ritual of goodnight kisses for animals and humans alike. Cozy up with your little one for a goodnight kiss — or two, or three, or four...

Varsha Bajaj's warm story and Ivan Bates's charming illustrations creates a sweet board book perfect for sharing with babies and toddlers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316459921
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Pages:	20
Sales rank:	617,031
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Varsha Bajaj has written many books for children including, The Home Builders,This Is Our Baby, Born Today, T is for Taj Mahal, Count Me In, and Abby Spencer Goes to Hollywood.
 
Ivan Bates has illustrated numerous children's books in the UK, including the best-selling Just You and Me by Sam McBratney.
 
 

Table of Contents

As nighttime falls, each precious, little animal nestles into its own cozy place and waits for good-night kisses. The parents ask, "How many kisses do you want tonight?" while the baby animals playfully respond with the number required to get them to settle down and drift off to sleep. From one to ten (and then some!), these tender kisses are part of a warm and reassuring bedtime ritual for animals and people alike.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight's:

"Delightful."—BookLoons

"Expressive and comforting watercolors."—Kirkus Reviews

"Bates's watercolors possess a sunlit, translucent grace, yet he still reaps plenty of comedy from his characterizations."
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Debut author Bajaj celebrates a bedtime ritual set in the animal world-with each succeeding species asking for one more goodnight kiss than its predecessor. The first stop is a bear's den bathed in golden light. Here, as in the other watercolor spreads, Bates (Just You and Me) places readers in the thick of the action. A cub gleefully snuggles against his supersize ursine father. " `How many kisses do you want tonight?'/ Daddy Bear growls, cuddling Little Bear tight./ `I want one,' laughs Little Bear,/ `A big, loud kiss on my soft, brown hair.' " A few habitats later, readers find themselves at the edge of a filmy spider web that's strung between two branches against a starry sky. " `I want eight,' he [the spider offspring] says with a giggle,/ `One on each leg-I'll try not to wiggle.' " Bates portrays animals as expressive as any human parent and child. But he also balances this anthropomorphism with authentic details of character and environment. In the spider spread, for instance, he articulates the hair on the insects' legs and other distinctive markings; rather than make the web tidy and symmetrical, he renders it as a roughhewn structure and emphasizes the industry and craftsmanship behind it. The animal portraits are so vibrant that when the book does visit the human world in the final two spreads, the familiarity of the characters is almost a letdown. But that's a minor quibble in a book that deserves a hearty embrace. Ages 3-6. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Another delightful bedtime story in the vein of Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995). A succession of animal moms and dads asks their babies how many kisses they want, and the youngsters' responses count upward from Little Bear's one kiss on his "soft, brown hair" to Little Bunny's 10 kisses on his "floppy ears and- eyes." A little girl and boy round out the tale, asking for a hundred and a million smooches, respectively. The rhyming text maintains a gentle flow, but the real attraction here is the beautiful watercolor and colored-pencil artwork, which is full of vibrant, night-hued colors that bring the animals and their expressions to life. This book is sure to be an instant sleepy-time favorite.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Animal and human babies get smoochies in a saccharine, but snuggly, tucking-in rhyme. "How many kisses do you want tonight?" asks each animal parent as it cuddles with its baby. Little Bear asks for one, Little Duck asks for two, Little Cat for three, and so on. Little Girl "princess pink" asks her daddy for a hundred kisses, and Little Boy "brave knight" asks his mommy for a million. Sweet, softly colored watercolors set off each loving pair of parent and child in cozy bedtime scenes. Even giggly Little Spider (who gets eight kisses, one for each leg) is awfully lovable. Cutesy, but a good bedtime story. (Picture book. 2-4)

Kirkus Reviews