Reviews for Love Waves

How does love keep us connected?  

Brimming with affection and sweetness—and sparkly wavy accents—Wells' depiction of the magically distance-spanning powers of love may sooth both parents and their young children feeling the stress of separation. "Mama goes to work" and "Daddy goes to work" provide the framing thoughts for two linked, simple stories told through full-page paintings in rich, velvety colors and a rhyming text. The parent bunnies are shown traveling to work and at work in clean, benign workplaces (daddy in an office, mama serving cookies and cakes in a café), thoughts turning to their child bunny contentedly busy at home and at play, or waiting at a window in expectation of a parent's return. Wells' familiar round, whiskered bunny faces have a comfortable kindness about them. Graceful lines stamped in teal-blue foil sweep enticingly across each page, and the extravagant packaging and honey-sweet message will lure parents and doting grandparents. Wells includes on the copyright page a whimsical definition of love waves ("The externalized product of affection so vibrant and ample that it cannot be contained by a single heart alone...") and attributes this to The Dictionary of Science (though the actual term refers to one of the kinds of surface waves of an earthquake).

Wells addresses a familiar theme--familial love spanning distances--in a fresh and clever way that will feel innately true to readers of any age. The book's two sections each begin with a mother and father hugging their child before leaving for work. Rather than dwelling on the child's feelings, Wells (the Max and Ruby books) focuses on the adults, making it clear that their offspring always dominates their thoughts. As the mother serves tea in a café, she ponders what her child might be doing: "Soon I wonder where you are:/ Zooming in your racing car?/ Swinging high above the trees?/ Eating honey with your peas?" To bridge the distance between them, she sends a "love wave" that loops through the air to deliver the message, "I'm coming home!" (The waves themselves are depicted as curling foil ribbons that swirl across the pages.) A similar scenario plays out at the father's office. With cozy pastel scenes and gentle verse, Wells makes tangible the powerful emotional connection between parent and child, reminding children that longing and, more importantly, love are both two-way streets. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)

PreS-Gr 3--A gray-and-white bunny doesn't cry when his parents go to work or when they put him to bed. He knows that his mom and dad miss him when they can't be together, and that their separations are only temporary. The story unfolds from the point of view of both parents as they leave for work in the morning and concludes when they are home again to put their child to bed. Feelings of love are expressed in lyrical rhyme and followed by thin, undulating lines--"waves"--of teal-blue foil. Illustrations done in warm pastels show mother waitressing in a café and father working at a desk "on the highest floor" of a skyscraper. The parents imagine their child performing different activities throughout the day: "Swinging high above the trees…/Eating honey with your peas…." Children who have separation anxiety will be reminded that their parents' love is constant and that good-byes don't mean that someone is leaving forever.--Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada