Everyone needs kisses x x x Tickly monkey kisses, Slurpy sloppy elephant kisses, EVEN snippy snappy crocodile kisses. BUT when you’re a sleepy little lion club, there’s only one thing in the whole wide world that’s completely exactly right – A huge great Big Golden Lion kiss JUST LIKE THIS. Review: This text is from a smarties award-winning author/illustrator team! Catherine and Laurence Anholt are one of the world’s leading writer and illustrator teams. Together, they have created over sixty picture books including A Kiss Like This.

This is an adorable story about a father lion and his excessively kissable cub. As Little Cub plays outside before bedtime, he finds that passers-by agree with Big Golden Lion. They each want to kiss him, too, and in just the way they would kiss their own offspring. Whether they're tickly monkey kisses, slurpy, sloppy elephant kisses, a nuzzling nosy rhino kiss, or a pecky parrot kiss, everyone needs kisses-especially a frightened lion club who has just come face-to-face with a sneaky, mean green crocodile! This warm-hearted tale, with its whimsical, colour illustrations, is ideal to read to young children. The book is beautifully presented and takes an everyday subject and turns it onto an unusual story with a cast of various friendly characters.

The text is simple, suited to the youngest child. It has softly shaded, amusing pictures and the storyline is repetitive so that young children can ‘read’ along. The repetition of the language is wonderful, and the book also lends itself to actions, as you kiss and cuddle your child behind her ears, on the end of her nose and on her tummy. The repetitive element: “Big Golden Lion kissed Little Cub behind his prickly ears… just like this. And Little Cub giggled. He kissed Little Cub on the end of his small pink nose… just like this. And Little Cub wriggled. He kissed Little Cub right on his warm fat tummy and blew a raspberry on his belly button…just like this. And Little Cub giggled and wriggled and jiggled”

The illustrationsfollow  the story. They are not overdone, nor do they take a reader’s attention to something else other than the story. Lots of white space, a little human expression in the faces of the animals and good use of vivid, vibrant and reassuring artwork portraying savannah animals. There are so many ways to expand the text and illustrations. With young children you can talk about  animals, love, appropriate forms of affection, or simply just read it for the joy of reading it.

 This sweet book is so much fun to read with/to your baby or child! You kiss and cuddle your child while reading the book, just as the big mama lion kisses and cuddles her cub. This book will have parent(s) and child interacting and enjoying, and sharing some of the best quality time they can muster while creating memories to carry with them always. You may want to have a spare copy set aside for your child because she will want to carry on the tradition with her own kids one day!

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2008-08-04