In this cozy read-aloud—with an irresistible mix of humor and tenderness—a mom assures her daughter that while mothers may not be perfect, they’ll always be full of love. The first picture book by the bestselling author of The Light We Lost and The Love We Found.Vibrant, adorable illustrations accompany a mother’s explanation to her daughter, who makes outrageous requests that simply can’t be met. “I can’t grow a striped banana. I can’t stretch like a giraffe. I can’t hear an earthworm’s whisper or make a spider laugh,” Mom admits. But the girl’s requests just get sillier, until the funny and touching moment the next day when Mom shows her daughter that she might have to disappoint her sometimes, but she’ll always find a way to demonstrate just how much she loves her.
Jill Santopolo is the internationally best-selling author of five novels for adults, including
The Love We Found, Stars in an Italian Sky, and
The Light We Lost, which was a
New York Times Bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, a Belletrist book club pick, and has been optioned for film. She is also the author of the children’s books in the Alec Flint Mysteries, Sparkle Spa, and Follow Your Heart series. Jill holds a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a certificate in Intellectual Property Law from NYU. She is the publisher of Philomel, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. This is her debut picture book.
Momoko Abe was born in Japan and has been drawing ever since she can remember. Her interest in visual storytelling brought her to the UK to study filmmaking when she was 20, and she still works in the TV and film industry alongside her illustration work. A winner of the AOI World Illustration Award, she lives in London with her cat, Clementine.
"Abe’s lively artwork features plenty of whimsical characters. A litany of love likely to warm parents’ hearts."
—Kirkus
"Imagining scenarios in which an adult acknowledges that they can’t do the impossible, Santopolo, making her picture book debut, and Abe spin the admission into a silly-sweet expression of love. Alongside lilting rhymes, the art’s simple shapes and warm colors play with a child’s dawning awareness that adults aren’t all-powerful."
—Publishers Weekly
