Don't Go! Love Waves by Rosemary Wells

BE BRAVE,

AS I LEAVE, I SEE YOU WAVE.

I HAVE TO GO WHERE I MUST BE.

Moms and dads have to go where they must go, and this pair of parents are off to work in the morning, leaving their youngster to wave from the window as they head for their workplaces. This prosaic leavetaking, daily though it is, is a common trauma in many households, and famous author-illustratior Rosemary Wells (Max and Ruby) offers reassurance of a novel kind. She emphasizes, not the sadness of the child, but the recurring thoughts of Mom and Dad, turning again and again to the child at home.

RING! RING! GOES MY TELEPHONE. COULD IT BE YOU?

OUT OF MY OFFICE WINDOW, CAN YOU HEAR ME SING?

Wells connects her parents and the waiting child with a symbolic silvery blue ribbon of thoughts, going back and forth between them until at last Mom and Dad are back at their own door for the daily reunion. Wells' newest, Love Waves (Candlewick, 2011), is a lovely little treatise on leaving a loved one, utilizing her familiar bright palette and stocky, short-eared rabbit figures to tell this evergreen story. Pair this one with Bonnie Verburg's recent hit, The Kiss Box or Anna Dewdney's best-selling Llama Llama Misses Mama for a bit of separation anxiety bibliotherapy for child and parent!