Sam McBratney is the author of the best-selling Guess How Much I Love You and many other books for children. Of this book he says, "People often ask authors where their ideas come from, and often authors say they don't know. But I do know about this one. Once upon a time, my wife and I had three small children — two boys and a girl, just like in the story. And when they were young, we used to tell them a story very like You're All My Favorites." Sam McBratney lives in Northern Ireland.
Anita Jeram is the award-winning author-illustrator of I Love My Little Storybook. She also illustrated Kiss Good Night and other books by Amy Hest, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, and many other picture books. Recently, her son asked her which one of the children in their family was the best — himself, his brother, or his sister. She explained they were all equal in her eyes, and he came back with another question: "Okay, then, who's the cleanest?" Anita Jeram says, "There's always one in every family." She lives in Northern Ireland.
“The response to this book just takes my breath away,” Sam McBratney once said of his cherished classic, Guess How Much I Love You. “I was talking to my agent about the text after I completed it, and she said, ‘Sam, this book can do nothing but good.’ I didn’t really understand what she meant at the time, but now I know that she was thinking about the opportunities this book would create for wee ones and big ones to come together for a few precious moments.”
Sam McBratney passed away on September 18, 2020, at the age of seventy-seven. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the beloved author was a classroom teacher before becoming a full-time writer. While he wrote more than fifty books, including several best-selling and award-winning titles, what brought him international acclaim was the 1994 publication of Guess How Much I Love You, featuring a spirited yet tender bedtime competition between two nutbrown hares and the endearing illustrations of Anita Jeram. Now considered a children’s book classic, Guess How Much I Love You has sold more than fifty million copies worldwide, has been translated into fifty-seven languages, and serves as the cornerstone of a global licensing program. The phrase “I love you to the moon and back” has itself taken on iconic stature, and the book is considered an essential title for any nursery, preschool, or library bookshelf.
More than a quarter-century after the publication of Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney authored a highly anticipated companion book, titled Will You Be My Friend?, also illustrated by Anita Jeram. On crafting a sequel to one of the most beloved books of all time, the author said, “When writing about the hares, I aim to describe moments of emotional significance, but with loads of humor and the lightest of touches. This story is about one of those moments. Little Nutbrown Hare’s world suddenly glows with the discovery of friendship.”
The Northern Ireland native started writing children’s books when he was a teacher in his thirties, with the aim of helping students who had trouble reading. But he continued writing for a more personal reason: “The act of imagining simply makes me feel good,” he said. “But, as the frog trapped in the milk discovered, if you keep going, sometimes you find yourself walking on cream cheese.”
Where did Sam McBratney get his inspiration? “I told my children stories when they were young,” he said, “so when I write, I try to think of what they would have liked.” But there may have been another source guiding his writing as well. The author’s father—who worked as a type compositor with the Belfast Telegraph, and whose favorite books were westerns—is the person Sam McBratney credited for giving him his love of the English language. “Most of my picture books explore the relationship between a big one and a wee one,” the author noted. “The big one is not called the father in the stories, but that’s what he is. Although my dad died before I became a writer, the father in my stories has a voice and a presence that he would have recognized and understood.”
In addition to authoring many books for children, Sam McBratney also wrote radio plays for adults and a prize-winning collection of short stories. A charming man who met friends new and old with a twinkle in his eye, Sam McBratney loved touring to support his books and built a lifetime of fond memories and meaningful connections with readers, booksellers, and librarians by traveling throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. His survivors include not only Maralyn, his wife of fifty-six years, along with his three children and six grandchildren, but also generations of readers whose hearts and minds he touched with his books.
For Anita Jeram, illustrating the phenomenal bestseller Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney was a labor of love. Even today, she says, “Every time I read this book, I want to cry. The story reminds me so much of my own son, who often plays this kind of game with me when it’s time for bed.” An immediate problem arose during her early brainstorming for the illustrations, however: she had never actually seen a hare. Trying to be helpful, her paleontologist husband brought a stuffed hare home from the museum. In the end though, the winsome Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare grew out of her imagination.
Anita Jeram’s son inspired her art again when he asked her which of the children in their family was the best—himself, his brother, or his sister. Anita Jeram explained they were all equal in her eyes, and he came back with another question: “Okay, then, who’s the cleanest?” She laughs as she recalls, “There’s always one in every family.” To answer this timeless question—who is the favorite child?—Anita Jeram reunited with author Sam McBratney to create You’re All My Favorites, a comforting tale in which Mommy and Daddy Bear reassure their three worried cubs that there’s plenty of love to go around.
Even before starting her illustrations for You’re All My Favorites, however, Anita Jeram had plenty of practice painting bears—in a noticeably different style. Kiss Good Night, a tender bedtime tale about a mother bear and a little bear, was a collaboration between Anita Jeram and acclaimed author Amy Hest. “I had recently finished illustrating part of In Every Tiny Grain of Sand (edited by Reeve Lindbergh), using acrylic paint for the first time, and I thought acrylics would give the pictures for Kiss Good Night some depth and warmth that I couldn’t seem to get with watercolors,” she says. “I visited the London zoo to look at the bears for inspiration, but it was a cold day and they all huddled asleep. So in the end I think Mrs. Bear is based on myself. She’s rather tall and big built, but I hope she looks like a nice comforting mom to have.” The illustrator carries the same soothing style into two sequels, Don’t You Feel Well, Sam? and You Can Do It, Sam.
The illustrator of many other popular and critically acclaimed books for children, including All Pigs Are Beautiful by Dick King-Smith, Anita Jeram has also written several children’s books of her own. As author-illustrator of Bunny, My Honey, a sweet story of a bunny lost and then found, she was able to exercise her rabbit-drawing skills. A rabbit is also the hero of I Love My Little Storybook, her magical tribute to the wonderful world of books.
Anita Jeram, a native of Portsmouth, England, studied art at Manchester Polytechnic and published her first book for children while she was still a student. Today, she lives in Northern Ireland with her family and a menagerie of animals. In the future she hopes to establish a wildlife sanctuary.
