Guess How Much I Love You

All children want reassurance that their parents' love runs wide and deep. In Guess How Much I Love You, a young rabbit named Little Nutbrown Hare thinks he's found a way to measure the boundaries of love. In a heartwarming twist on the "I-can-do-anything-you-can-do-better" theme, Little Nutbrown Hare goes through a series of declarations regarding the breadth of his love for Big Nutbrown Hare. But even when his feelings stretch as long as his arms, or as high as his hops, LittleNutbrown Hare is fondly one-upped by the elder rabbit's more expansive love.

Anita Jeram's illustrations are bound to elicit an "ah" from even the sternest of readers; these loving rabbits are expressive, endearing, and never cloying. In turn, Sam McBratney tells a simple bedtime story of sweet familial love with humour, insight, and a delightful surprise at the end. Children and parents will love snuggling up for this one--a treat to be read again and again, just before the lights are turned out. (Ages 4 to 8) --Amazon.com

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Perfect even for babies - Rated
With beautiful pictures and lyrical text this is a book you can start reading to your little one from a very early age. Even though my little boy doesn't understand he loves the pictures of big and little nutbrown hare and he knows its about love because of the tone in my voice and the big hugs!

Also it's great for dads: normally depictions of love in children's books seem to be a Mum and a baby; Big Nutbrown Hare is the father!

Because it's a bit more "wordy" than most baby books I think it's good for youngsters to learn that the weird squiggly black things (letters!) have something to do with the story too.

If ever there was a book that deserves 5 stars - Rated
First let me tell you I am a father of 2 children. Secondly let me tell you that I am a police officer in his forties. Then let me tell you that the book still brings tears to my eyes when I read it (or in fact write this review).

I must confess that beautiful with a little sad does the trick and this book is one of the best childrens books ever written. It tells the story of the little Nut Brown Hare that is being put to sleep by the Big Nut Brown Hare and how the Little Nut Brown Hare is trying to express his/her love for the Big Nut Brown Hare, he/she loves him/her as much as he/she can streach his/her arms, jump high, run fast (there is no gender in the book, so it can be daughter/father, son/mother, big sister/little brother or any other combination) and yet the Big Nut Brown Hare always outdoes the Little Brown Hare by streaching further, jumping higher or running faster. But the end has a twist - such a sweet twist.

There is a lot of love in the book and children relate very well with it and understand the dilemma of the Little Brown Hare who is bursting to express his/her love for the Big Brown Hare. Both parent and child will feel a little more affectionate during and after the read.

The book is so simple in concept and perfect in execution. The pictures and story combine very well.

The book is perfect and worth every star.

Eloquent Expressions of Parent-Child Love - Rated
Guess How Much I Love You is a well-earned recipient of the Abby Award.

This book is very uniquely plotted. Unlike most books for bedtime, the two protagonists are male (apparently father and son, although that is left unstated). And they spend the whole book describing and showing their love for one another. I know of no other book that provides this sort of man-boy modeling about expressing love and appreciation for one another.

Yet at the same time, the "maleness" of the two characters is subdued so that the pair could be very easy to see them as female characters (a mother-daughter pair). Obviously, mixed pairs (mother-son and father-daughter) are even easier to imagine. So everyone can relate to expressing love and receiving expressions of love in return when reading this delightful story.

The other attraction of this story is that the youngster, Little Nutbrown Hare, takes the lead. He wants to describe his love first. Children can start to be reticent about their feelings beginning around age 4, and this book should help overcome that shyness. Fathers of my generation and older have been reticent since that age with everyone, so this book will help a few parents as well to show their feelings.

As for age level, this book should start to appeal at about age 2 1/2 to 3. You will be reading the story to your youngster at that age. In time, with memorization, you will be listening to the story. Later, you child will actually learn to read it to you.

The illustrations are gently subdued, to help create a mood of drowsiness. Nicely done, Ms. Anita Jeram!

The story opens with Little Nutbrown Hare on his way to sleep. He is riding on top of Big Nutbrown Hare, holding onto the larger hare's very long ears. The plot development begins when Little Nutbrown Hare raises the title challenge: Guess how much I love you.

Little Nutbrown Hare uses his body to show how much. Big Nutbrown Hare, being larger, outdoes him when he repeats what Little Nutbrown Hare has said in terms of his own adult body. Little Nutbrown Hare then goes on to use his eyes to create even larger distances to express the greatness of his love. Big Nutbrown Hare comes up with even larger distances, based on his longer experience.

As Little Nutbrown Hare goes to sleep after making his greatest expression of love, Big Nutbrown Hare says nothing until after Little Nutbrown Hare is in the land of nod. Then Big Nutbrown Hare makes his final expression of love . . . a very beautiful one (involving about 500,000 miles).

After you have finished enjoying this heartfelt story, I suggest that you think about more ways that you can express your love more often to those you care about. Use the concepts in this book to come up with ways to flesh out the simple, "I love you" to make the expression more tangible to the hearer. I suspect you will receive many bouquets of expressed love as a result.

May love be with and come from you . . . always!

Ignore the 1 star reviewer - Rated
This book is simple and enchanting and I can't add much to what the other 5 star reviewers have said except that my daughter had it when it was first published and, now 12, insisted we get a copy for her 3 year old brother to keep as she would not hand hers down except for the occasional loan. This makes him very cross as he has had most of her other books.
Like her, he loves to quote it and think of ever more outlandish distances to stretch his love, beyond the moon and back. And we are NOT a demonstrative family (but we do have a lot of soft toys!)
Ignore the cynical reviewer who thinks this is for adults only....I dont know many families who dont have this. His must be a very sad life.

A lovely cute little book - Rated
This is the perfect book to give to an expectant mum or new born baby.
It is short and sweet, easy to read in just a moment and the energetic pictures are really lovely.
A perfect book for tiny babies as it is over with in before their attention moves on to something else and inspires discussions in the older child as to how much they are loved, encouraging self security.