I'd Know You Anywhere, My Love

May 27, 2013
Young children adore pretending to be animals, and Tillman’s (The Crown on Your Head) insight into the wish to turn into another creature powers this book. The narrator, a handsome woman whose red clothing adds a spot of contrasting color to each spread, claims that infallible radar allows her to identify the child she loves no matter what animal form the child decides to adopt. “If early one morning, you put on your socks/ and declare, ‘For today, I’m a little red fox!’/ I’d say ‘My, my... that is quite a disguise!’/ But I’d know it was you by the gleam in your eyes.” Each verse subtly affirms an aspect of the child’s appearance (“your grin”; “your clever tiptoes”), and Tillman’s silky, digitally painted spreads show the woman interacting in joyful and inventive ways with each animal: crouched in a field with a baby pig, ice skating with bear cubs, and dancing with blue-footed boobies. Even kids who draw back from syrupy love language will enjoy the conceit that nothing can fool a mother. Ages 4–8. Agent: Cathy Hemming, Cathy Hemming Literary Agency.