You Know How to Love

by Rachel Tawil Kenyon, Mary Lundquist

Overview

A celebration of the power we all have inside of us to be loving and kind, perfect for fans of The Wonderful Things You Will Be and Oh, the Places You'll Go!

It starts at the start
when you can't even talk.
Before you stand up
and learn how to walk.

Deep in your heart
the knowing is there.
You know how to love
and you know how to care.

With warm, gentle rhymes and soft, sweet art, this book celebrates the power we all have to love, and to use that love to make the whole world a better, kinder, more welcoming place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593114575
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	197,269
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD520L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Rachel Tawil Kenyon (happywithabook.com) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent her teen years in Hollywood, California. Bringing her diverse experiences with her, she moved with her family to Nashville, Tennessee, where she writes, reads, and teaches. Rachel is known in her community for her enthusiasm for working with young children and teenagers. She writes from the heart and encourages the kids she works with to do the same. You can follow Rachel on Twitter @RachelTKenyon.

Mary Lundquist (marylundquist.com) is the author and illustrator of Cat & Bunny and the illustrator of six other picture books, including Bloom, written by Deborah Diesen, and The Amazing Idea of You, written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she has lived in California and Vermont, and currently lives with her husband and two very cute sons in Asheville, North Carolina. Follow her on Instagram @mary.lundquist.

Editorial Reviews

2020-09-15
An idyllic sojourn in a leafy park alongside the water serves as the setting for a poem about friendship and sharing.

The gentle line-and-color paintings, full of children and adults engaged in many activities, obliquely illuminate the well-meaning but clichéd poetic text. The four-line rhyming stanzas read like so many other works of this type: “Deep in your heart, / the knowing is there. / You know how to love, / and you know how to care.” The pages hold adventures for the children, as viewers follow a small brown-skinned tot in a blue-and-white shirt through the pictures. Judging by the child’s growth from a babe in arms, some years elapse, but neither the child’s outfit nor the seasons change—a disorienting visual choice. Characters of many ages and racial presentations, as well as some with visible disabilities, mark the diversity that is central to the theme of loving kindness as they all play games and frolic. The child in the striped shirt helps a White-presenting kid who slips. Rain starts to fall, but then a rainbow appears and all is well again. A different child with beige skin doesn’t want to share a kite with the brown-skinned protagonist, but the poem explains that “Not everyone feels like it / every day.” A lovely two-page spread ends the book with everyone floating paper boats on the water. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 29.5% of actual size.)

A murky timeline plus a bland text make for an insubstantial read. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews