Love is

21/2/2018

By Ariel

In which Ariel admits to openly weeping over a picture book. Love is by Diane Adams and illustrated by Claire Keane is simply that poignant. This post contains affiliate links. By using them you keep Busy Nest News open. Thank you for your continued support!

Love is by Diane Adams and illustrated by Claire Keane

This book made me cry. And no. I was not hormonal at the time. Love Is written by Diane Adams and illustrated by Claire Keane is simply one of the simplest, most poignant descriptions of love you will ever read.

Love Is details a year in the life of a little girl who fosters a baby duck. As the duckling grows, so too does her understanding of what love is, what it looks like and the strength it requires. The first poignant line sets the tone. “Love is holding something fragile.” She goes on to learn what love looks like. Sometimes it’s challenging, like midnight feedings. Sometimes it’s absolutely perfection. “It’s peaceful sleeping, no more peeping tucked in tight from head to toes.” She learns that the foundation of love is rooted in service. Love is feeding, cleaning, washing and so much more. Love is never-ending. “Love is waking up together, side by side and beak to nose.”

But the hardest lesson of all is learning that love is letting go. It’s knowing when to push your duckling out of the nest and hoping beyond all hope that you have done your job and prepared her for what life has in store. And maybe just maybe, she will come back and see you someday. At this point in the book, the tears were silently streaming down my face. To me, Love Is perfectly captures how I felt as a new mother. How it takes so much out of you to love this tiny being and yet so little at the same time. It is both the easiest and the hardest thing you will ever do. Bean was too enthralled by the ducky to notice that I was a basket case. We both loved it.

To top it all off, with a simple color palette Keane’s illustrations encapsulate the silliness, the frustration, the joy, the exhaustion, the everything that goes into caring for someone or something else. Love Is written by Diane Adams and illustrated by Claire Keane is five eggs.

When was the last time a picture book made you cry?