A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy
A variety of animals, from giraffes to fish to elephants, kiss in this salute to different kinds of smooches, ending with “Now there’s only one kiss missing . . . Your kiss! Like this!” The kiss descriptions are amusing, but they don’t always make sense (How can the giraffe’s kiss be “tall”?), and illustrations sometimes don’t match [End Page 307] the text (the illustration of the bee’s “fuzzy and buzzy” kiss, for instance, doesn’t indicate fuzziness or buzziness). There’s still lots of enjoyment to be had and plenty of attractive animal parent-and-child pairs to imitate in Murphy’s trademark illustrations, which sport the sweet, strong colors and design simplicity of decorated sugar cookies; half-page flaps provide additional fun as toddlers can flip the flaps to reveal each kiss (“A mouse kiss is quick and small . . .//like this!”). The illustrations will carry well to a laptime or storytime crowd, but plenty of parents will find this equally enjoyable for a bedtime snuggle session as well.
