You're All My Favorites

by Sam McBratney, Anita Jeram (Illustrator)

Overview

Just in time for the tenth anniversary -- the creators of Guess How Much I Love You reunite!

So that night the three baby bears asked their Daddy Bear,
"Which one of us do you like the most?
Who is your favorite?
We can't all be the best."

Every night, while tucking in their three cubs, Mommy and Daddy Bear tell them they're the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world. But one day the three little bears start to wonder: How do Mommy and Daddy know this is true? And even more worrisome to each sibling: What if my parents like my brother or sister better than me? From the team who brought us the beloved Big and Little Nutbrown Hare comes a tale that answers a timeless question with the ultimate reassurance -- and offers the perfect way for parents to remind their own little cubs how very much each one is loved.

Mommy and Daddy Bear convince three worried cubs that there's plenty of love to go around in this comforting new tale from the incomparable team of Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763624422
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/13/2004
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.46(w) x 9.35(h) x 0.44(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sam McBratney (1943−2020) is the author of the internationally best-selling classic Guess How Much I Love You and its sequel, Will You Be My Friend?, as well as All My Favorites, all illustrated by Anita Jeram. He also wrote Just You and Me and There, There, both illustrated by Ivan Bates, and Mindi and the Goose No One Else Could See, illustrated by Linda Ólafsdóttir, among many other books for children.

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.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
For the throngs of parents and children whose hearts melted over Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram's national bestseller Guess How Much I Love You?, the duo has done it again with this utterly adorable, comforting picture book about three little bears who all hold a special place in Mom and Dad's heart. Combining the sweetness and simple message of their previous collaborative book, McBratney and Jeram introduce readers to Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear, and their three cubs, who are told every night, "'You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!' " Yet when questions begin to arise whether Mom and Dad have favorites -- one bear has patches, the second is a girl, and the third is the littlest -- the elder bruins tell their tykes one by one that despite their differences, all three are equally extra-special. Like other books of the genre, McBratney and Jeram's latest "I love you" effort always remembers to include ample doses of tender affection and reassurance, but this duo has a unique, magical charm that brings the message to another level. The illustrator's warm watercolors of the bears lounging in the woods wonderfully mirrors any family at home, while the author's text has the right amount of playfulness without being cloying. There's no doubt here that if you have one or more children at home, this winner is a cut above many others for nighttime sharing or for just saying, "You're loved." Matt Warner

bn.com

Jeram brings her gifts in ursine portraiture (evidenced in Kiss Goodnight) to bear on a sweet, if rather neatly resolved text by McBratney, her collaborator in Guess How Much I Love You. A mother and father bear face an age-old dilemma: how can they prove there's enough parental love for all three of their cubs? Mommy and Daddy may insist they have "the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world," but the baby bears reason, "We can't all be the best." Jeram shows each cub anxiously pondering a possible shortcoming: the eldest has no patches ("Maybe his mommy really really liked patches"), the middle one is the only girl, and the littlest is... well, small. But Daddy persuades his cubs that those qualities do not matter. He recalls that when the bears were born, Mommy Bear declared each one "the most perfect" example of a first, second and third baby bear, respectively. While this answer mollifies the cubs (they fall asleep on their mother's capacious tummy), readers may find a reassurance tied to the siblings' birth order to be more unsettling than comforting. Jeram's pictures are so beguiling, however, that she smoothes over this considerable rough spot. By sketching in only the barest suggestions of setting, she allows the bears to speak far more eloquently through their postures, expressions and cuddles. Ages 3-7. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-K-The creators of Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995) offer another reassuring tale. Each night, Mommy and Daddy Bear tuck in their three beloved cubs with the same phrase, "You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!" Well, even little bears are discerning enough to doubt hyperbole and so they question their mother's empirical basis for this observation. Her reply, "Because your daddy told me," mollifies the youngsters until they begin to question their own ability to measure up to the wonderfulness standard. The first worries that he doesn't have patches like the others, the second that she's not a boy, and the third that he's the littlest. They approach their father with the query, "Who is your favorite? We can't all be the best." Daddy Bear explains that they are, repeating how Mommy Bear exclaimed over each of them at their birth ("the most perfect first baby bear," "the most perfect second baby bear," etc.). Satisfied, the trio is able to drift off into peaceful slumber. The quiet, loving tone of the text is echoed in the muted shades of the watercolor-and-pencil illustrations offset by soothing cream-colored backgrounds. While this story will not be enough to put to rest children's basic insecurities and endless jockeying for their parents' most-favored status, it does inject some unobtrusive bibliotherapy into a deftly presented bedtime story.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

More cozy family bonding from the creators of Guess How Much I Love You (1995). When three cubs want to know which is their parents' favorite, Mama and Papa Bear provide inclusive but satisfying answers. The bears, sporting a subtext-engendering array of hues and markings, pose closely together in various ursine or human postures amid minimal natural settings; Mama and Papa are plainly inseparable, and the young ones, though aware of their physical differences, hold paws on the cover and are, throughout, poster "children" for sibling harmony. McBratney and Jeram again combine to address a common childhood anxiety in a relaxed, irresistibly soothing way, and the competitiveness that mars their bestselling earlier title is much reduced here. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews

For any family with more than one child, this could quickly become a beloved bedtime story.
—Chicago Tribune

McBratney and Jeram again combine to address a common childhood anxiety in a relaxed, irresistibly soothing way.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

This gentle bedtime story receives a sensitive reading by Alan Marriott. "You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world," the parents tell their three cubs. Marriott voices the concerns of the three with squeaky, nervous tones. Each has a different worry—might gender, appearance, or size make one of them less lovable? To balance the babies' worries, Marriott uses tender and calm tones as both mother and father describe a love that knows no limitation. Lester Barnes's musical soundscape of chirping crickets and soft lullaby tunes has an occasional tuba “oompah” to portray the solid parent bears. In the second track a bell signals page-turns for new readers. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile