Why Do You Love Me? - Hardcover

Laura Schlessinger; Daniel McFeeley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060278668 ISBN 13: 9780060278663

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1999

Synopsis

In a first children's book by a best-selling author and radio personality, Sammy, a young boy, asks his mother why she loves him and learns that her love is unconditional.

About this title

Review

The first in a series of children's titles by radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Why Do You Love Me? (written with Martha Lambert) is a warm and fuzzy 32-page picture book about unconditional love. Unlike the treasured, bunny-centered Guess How Much I Love You, Schlessinger's text--aimed at a similar, if slightly older, age group--is intended to be reality-based. You won't find any fantastical elements here, just a straight conversation between mother and son about the enduring love the mother feels for her child. Unfortunately, the story's low-key "slice of life" approach isn't reflected in Daniel McFeeley's exaggerated, cartoonish line drawings--a stylistic merging of R. Crumb and Jim "Garfield" Davis.

Schlessinger delivers an important message beneath the Sunday-comics-style presentation: A mother's love is forever and always, no matter how her child behaves. Sammy thinks he might be loved because he's good at sports or is helpful around the house. No, Mother explains, it's because "he's the one and only Sammy there will ever be in the whole world--and you're mine. And that's enough for me to love you all the time." Then Sammy asks if there is ever a time when she doesn't love him, and he offers suggestions of recent bad behavior. "I did not love the yelling, or the hitting, or cleaning off the crayon marks," says Mother. "But I still loved you." Further, she says, "the love in my heart is like the sun in the sky. It is always there, even when you can't see it."

The mother here is never shown to be distracted, overwhelmed, snappy, or sad. And parents may bristle that there's no real discussion of the existence or whereabouts of a parent's love when working, absent, sick, or tired. (Dr. Laura would ask now, "Who cares? It's your kids we're thinking about here.") But this story is meant purely to comfort the young child who fears that their parents' love comes and goes at whim. At that, it fully succeeds. (Ages 3 and older) --Jean Lenihan

About the Author

Dr. Laura Schlessinger holds a post-doctoral certification in marriage, family, and child therapy and is licensed by the state of California as a marriage and family therapist. She is the author of the best-selling children's book Why Do You Love Me? and But I Waaannt It!, and best-selling adult books The Ten Commandments (with Rabbi Stewart Vogel), How Could You Do That?, Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, and Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives. She has the number one radio show in America, which is syndicated in 450 cities and is heard by 18 million people each weekday. In September 2000, Dr. Laura will launch a daily television show, syndicated by Paramount Domestic Television. Dr. Laura lives with her son, Deryk, and her husband, Dr. Lewis Bishop, in southern California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0060278668
• ISBN 13: 9780060278663
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40