Nana Loves You More

PreS-Gr 1–Displaying a tin ear for language as well as a lack of imagination, Fallon adds to the groaning shelf of Guess How Much I Love You! variants an extended grandma/toddler exchange written in stumbling verse: “Forever from one past one hundred and four,/ You’ll always love NANA but NANA loves YOU more.” More than rainbows and dreams? “More than three scoops of your favorite ice cream!” And so on. Taking a cue from Leo Lionni at his most elemental, Ordóñez composes props and a cast of stubby, googly-eyed animals from simple geometric shapes and arranges them against monochrome backdrops to illustrate the sequence of trite scenarios. Sharper observers will deduce that the two almost unrecognizably stylized pandas posed in most of the pictures are stand-ins for the narrators, though only twice do they ever actually make eye contact with each other. The author’s name on the cover ensures demand, but there are many better written and better designed exemplars of the general premise.