The idea is good, but the rhymes just didn't cut it for me. ( )

A sweet portrait of parental love, notable for its depiction of a two-mom family.

The text neither names nor defines the family relationships in this picture book, so Alizadeh’s art takes the lead in depicting two women and their baby. One mother appears white, with light skin and short-cropped brown hair, while the other has long, dark, wavy hair and a slightly darker skin tone. Their child has coloring more like that of the latter mother and is clearly abundantly loved by both parents. The illustrations depict the family riding their bicycles to a farm and a zoo before heading home for dinner, a bath, and bedtime. The loose linework, gentle palette, and soft visual texture of the art is a perfect match for the lilting, easy cadence of the affirming text: “There’s a buzz for each bug, / and a breeze for each tree, / and plenty of hugs for you and me.” The speaker and addressee of this line and others are never defined, which underscores the clarity of Alizadeh’s intention in depicting this particular queer family constellation. “You” could have been depicted as one person, after all, but this line is accompanied by a group hug shared by the child and two moms.

Plenty of need for this warm hug of a book.

This is a fiction, picture book for children. I will use this book for young children to teach them diversity, about LGBTQ, parent-child love, and love in general. This book is about a family of two moms and a child and how their daily lives and activities are the same for all the families. This book will help me with teaching students that families are diverse in many aspects. I will teach students acceptance, empathy, respect, love, and other aspects in life. ( )

I love the imagery of a same-sex couple with their toddler, but the words and the rhythm of the rhymes just never clicked with me.

I stumbled on the very first page as I'm not sure I've ever seen the sentence "There are plenty of fish in the sea" actually refer to fish in the sea before. I immediately wondered if the couple was breaking up and found myself first distracted and then in a mood to nitpick the rest of the book. ( )