I Promise I'll Find You

by Heather Patricia Ward, Sheila McGraw (Illustrator)

Overview

More than 300,000 copies sold.

A gentle, simple story that explores the fear of being separated from loved ones, always with the reassurance that "I promise I'll find you." A classic, thoughtful and timeless story.

A beloved classic that continues to reassure children.

I Promise I'll Find You is a moving story that parents will love reading to and sharing with their children again and again.

The fear of being separated from loved ones is a universal emotion. Consider a child who feels lost — wandering away from home, becoming separated in a crowd, or feeling frightened in a new and strange place.

I Promise I'll Find You is a perennial favorite of parents and children alike; it's like a comforting hug, a warm lap, a reassuring kiss and the enveloping arms of a parent who pledges, no matter what happens, "I promise I'll find you."

In 11 warm and simple verses, Heather Patricia Ward delivers a timeless message of reassurance. Sheila McGraw's imaginative illustrations show a devoted mother and an amusing dog as they search the world over for a lost child: at sea, in the city, over mountains and even in outer space.

Together, parents and children will enjoy the gentle language and the calm, reassuring pictures of this thoughtful and important book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781552090947
Publisher:	Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date:	07/02/2005
Edition description:	Reprint edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,103,104
Product dimensions:	8.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.13(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Heather Patricia Ward is the mother of four children and this is her first book.

Sheila McGraw illustrated the perennial bestseller, Love You Forever.

Editorial Reviews

Reassuring... the text is complemented by action-packed illustrations in warm, vibrant colors.

LA) The Advocate (Baton Rouge

A child's fear of being lost or separated is handled beautifully with colorful pastel illustrations and gentle rhymes.

San Diego Union Tribute

The greatest fear of every parent and child is to be separated from each other. I Promise I'll Find You addresses this fear sensitively, but without minimizing the feelings of anguish. Young readers will be reassured to know the lengths to which adults will go to find a missing child. The story of a mother searching for her lost child is told in first person in 11 rhyming verses. The endearing message is one of unconditional devotion. There is great variety in the artistic style, media, and visual perspectives in Sheila McGraw's illustrations. However, similar features create continuity and, with assistance, children can find in the picture a small, featureless figure gesturing to his mother. The author's message is about situations in which parents and children experience long, anxious periods of separation.... However, the story is warmly reassuring to children who simply have a fear of being lost and to those who have experienced an unintentional separation from parents in a public place.

Disney Family.com - Karyn Wellhousen

Being lost is a major fear central to childhood, but fears are soothed in this collection of 11 deceptively simple verses. The imagery is vivid—a mother or father rows a rowboat, rides a horse, drives a race car, or shoots through space in a rocket-ship until the child is found, brought back home, and enveloped in love and safety.

GoodReads.com

Ideally suited for young children, I Promise I'll Find You has the capacity to touch any reader. All preschool or primary level collections would benefit from having this book. Its clever design can actually appeal to a broad range of readers and emergent readers. It would also make an excellent book for new parents and, even, old ones! Highly Recommended.

Canadian Review of Materials - Christina Neigel

Young readers will be reassured to know the lengths to which adults will go to find a missing child.
— Karyn Wellhousen

Disney Family.com

It will be up to presiding adults to create an appropriate context for this underbaked book, which is dedicated in part to ``all of the missing children in the world.'' In verse, a mother tells her child about the ways she might search for him: "If I had a little racecar/ I'd race the whole world twice./ I'd find you and I'd keep you,/ Oh, that would be so nice." Where Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny reassuringly tells a child that a parent's love will follow him wherever he goes, Ward changes the script: I will find you wherever you are taken. In doing so she seems to introduce the anxiety her book seeks to dispel. McGraw (who illustrated Love You Forever) serves up a set of bouncy full-spread pastels splashed with sunlight. Readers may enjoy hunting through the art for the stray child, found on every spread except one-an inconsistency that is particularly disturbing in light of the book's themes. Ages 3-8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly