Grandma's Valentine: Grandma Loves You by Helen Foster James

I FELL IN LOVE THE MOMENT I SAW YOU.

FOR YOU ARE MY BABY'S BABY, THAT'S TRUE.

A generation between grandparents and grandchildren does not weaken the instant bond felt for the newborn child. This grandma is clearly snockered as she holds the little one, child of her child, and she looks forward to the happy times ahead.

HERE IS MY PROMISE, I WANT YOU TO KNOW.

I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER, WHEREVER YOU GO.

A perfect birthday or Valentine's Day book from grandmother to child, Helen Foster James' Grandma Loves You! (Sleeping Bear Press, 2013), with its appended space for photos of child and grandparent and letter from grandmother to grandchild, makes a valued family keepsake.   Sincere endearments abound in James' agreeably rhyming text, and artist Petra Brown's illustrations of Grandma and her "Honey, my bunny" evoke the mood of Sam McBratney's and Anita Jeram's best-selling classic Guess How Much I Love You, a fine read-aloud choice to pair with this one, offering the fatherly side of family love.

Despite its unabashed sentimentality, Kirkus gives this one a pass, saying, "An unabashedly idealized but nevertheless wholehearted hymn to grandmotherhood."