Two Hands to Love You by Diane Adams, ill, by Paige Keiser
For the second day of National Poetry Month, another book review, this time of a rhyming picture book entitled Two Hands to Love You, by Diane Adams, with wonderful art by Paige Keiser. It actually does well what I'll Love You Forever did creepily, and that is to write a beautiful, lullabye of a rhyming book for an unborn child/baby/toddler/older reader who wants to be reassured that people will always be there for him or her.
The book is exceedingly well-done, with ink and watercolor drawings that support and enhance the text, while making clear who it is that is "speaking" at various times: Mom, then Dad, then older siblings, then grandparents. It would make a spectacular shower gift for an expectant parent, as well as a very excellent new baby gift.
Here's a taste of the text from the start of the book:
When the world's a strange place, unfamiliar and new,
my two hands will hold you, will carry you through.
My two hands will hug you, will rock you to sleep,
will count all the toes on your tiny pink feet.
I'll bathe you in bubbles and soak you in sun,
then wrap you up tightly when bath time is done.
For you are my baby.
I'll never be far.
I'll love you,
think of you,
wherever you are.
Those last five lines in the text I quoted form a chorus, which is repeated until the end of the book, with a shift to the plural "our" and "we" once the siblings and grandparents come along. They all have hands to support and help the new baby, and to teach the baby about the world. And as the book progresses, it includes the fact that the baby will get bigger and start doing lots of things with his/her own two hands, but that the rest of the family will still be there for support.
While two hands stand ready if right turns to wrong,
to steady your path when a bump comes along--
to love you, to hold you, to take away fears,
to stand you back up and to brush away tears.
A true delight of a small picture book, with my thanks to the good people at Chronicle Books for sending a review copy my way. *Snuggles book*