From School Library Journal
PreSchool-K–The creators of Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995) offer another reassuring tale. Each night, Mommy and Daddy Bear tuck in their three beloved cubs with the same phrase, "You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!" Well, even little bears are discerning enough to doubt hyperbole and so they question their mother's empirical basis for this observation. Her reply, "Because your daddy told me," mollifies the youngsters until they begin to question their own ability to measure up to the wonderfulness standard. The first worries that he doesn't have patches like the others, the second that she's not a boy, and the third that he's the littlest. They approach their father with the query, "Who is your favorite? We can't all be the best." Daddy Bear explains that they are, repeating how Mommy Bear exclaimed over each of them at their birth ("the most perfect first baby bear," "the most perfect second baby bear," etc.). Satisfied, the trio is able to drift off into peaceful slumber. The quiet, loving tone of the text is echoed in the muted shades of the watercolor-and-pencil illustrations offset by soothing cream-colored backgrounds. While this story will not be enough to put to rest children's basic insecurities and endless jockeying for their parents' most-favored status, it does inject some unobtrusive bibliotherapy into a deftly presented bedtime story.–Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Every night, while tucking in their three cubs, Mommy and Daddy Bear tell them they're the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world. But one day the three little bears start to wonder: How do Mommy and Daddy know this is true? And even more worrisome to each sibling: What if my parents like my brother or sister better than me? From the team who brought us the beloved children's classic Guess How Much I Love You comes a tale that answers a timeless question with the ultimate reassurance - and offers the perfect way for parents to remind their own little cubs how very much each one is loved.

From the Publisher
Mommy and Daddy Bear convince three worried cubs that there's plenty of love to go around in this comforting tale from the incomparable team of Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram, creators of Guess How Much I Love You.

From the Author
"People often ask authors where their ideas come from, and often authors say they don't know. But I do know about this one. Once upon a time, my wife and I had three small children - two boys and a girl, just like in the story. And when they were young, we used to tell them a story very like You're All My Favorites." - Sam McBratney

From the Inside Flap
Once upon a time, a Mommy Bear and a Daddy Bear told their three little cubs that they were the best little cubs in the whole wide world. But the time came when each of the siblings began to wonder. They couldn't all be favorites. Or could they? Ten years after the publication of Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram have teamed up once again to provide a delightfully generous helping of family affection, humor, and loving reassurance.

About the Author
Sam McBratney is the author of Guess How Much I Love You and several other children's picture books. He resides in Northern Ireland. Anita Jeram is the author-illustrator of I Love My Little Storybook and illustrator of Guess How Much I Love You, Kiss Good Night, Don't You Feel Well Sam, and You Can Do It Sam. She lives in Northern Ireland.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
For the throngs of parents and children whose hearts melted over Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram's national bestseller Guess How Much I Love You?, the duo has done it again with this utterly adorable, comforting picture book about three little bears who all hold a special place in Mom and Dad's heart. Combining the sweetness and simple message of their previous collaborative book, McBratney and Jeram introduce readers to Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear, and their three cubs, who are told every night, "'You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!' " Yet when questions begin to arise whether Mom and Dad have favorites -- one bear has patches, the second is a girl, and the third is the littlest -- the elder bruins tell their tykes one by one that despite their differences, all three are equally extra-special. Like other books of the genre, McBratney and Jeram's latest "I love you" effort always remembers to include ample doses of tender affection and reassurance, but this duo has a unique, magical charm that brings the message to another level. The illustrator's warm watercolors of the bears lounging in the woods wonderfully mirrors any family at home, while the author's text has the right amount of playfulness without being cloying. There's no doubt here that if you have one or more children at home, this winner is a cut above many others for nighttime sharing or for just saying, "You're loved." Matt Warner

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Just in time for the tenth anniversary -- the creators of Guess How Much I Love You reunite!

So that night the three baby bears asked their Daddy Bear,
"Which one of us do you like the most?
Who is your favorite?
We can't all be the best."

Every night, while tucking in their three cubs, Mommy and Daddy Bear tell them they're the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world. But one day the three little bears start to wonder: How do Mommy and Daddy know this is true? And even more worrisome to each sibling: What if my parents like my brother or sister better than me? From the team who brought us the beloved Big and Little Nutbrown Hare comes a tale that answers a timeless question with the ultimate reassurance -- and offers the perfect way for parents to remind their own little cubs how very much each one is loved.

Mommy and Daddy Bear convince three worried cubs that there's plenty of love to go around in this comforting new tale from the incomparable team of Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Jeram brings her gifts in ursine portraiture (evidenced in Kiss Goodnight) to bear on a sweet, if rather neatly resolved text by McBratney, her collaborator in Guess How Much I Love You. A mother and father bear face an age-old dilemma: how can they prove there's enough parental love for all three of their cubs? Mommy and Daddy may insist they have "the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world," but the baby bears reason, "We can't all be the best." Jeram shows each cub anxiously pondering a possible shortcoming: the eldest has no patches ("Maybe his mommy really really liked patches"), the middle one is the only girl, and the littlest is... well, small. But Daddy persuades his cubs that those qualities do not matter. He recalls that when the bears were born, Mommy Bear declared each one "the most perfect" example of a first, second and third baby bear, respectively. While this answer mollifies the cubs (they fall asleep on their mother's capacious tummy), readers may find a reassurance tied to the siblings' birth order to be more unsettling than comforting. Jeram's pictures are so beguiling, however, that she smoothes over this considerable rough spot. By sketching in only the barest suggestions of setting, she allows the bears to speak far more eloquently through their postures, expressions and cuddles. Ages 3-7. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

PreS-K-The creators of Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick, 1995) offer another reassuring tale. Each night, Mommy and Daddy Bear tuck in their three beloved cubs with the same phrase, "You are the most wonderful baby bears in the whole wide world!" Well, even little bears are discerning enough to doubt hyperbole and so they question their mother's empirical basis for this observation. Her reply, "Because your daddy told me," mollifies the youngsters until they begin to question their own ability to measure up to the wonderfulness standard. The first worries that he doesn't have patches like the others, the second that she's not a boy, and the third that he's the littlest. They approach their father with the query, "Who is your favorite? We can't all be the best." Daddy Bear explains that they are, repeating how Mommy Bear exclaimed over each of them at their birth ("the most perfect first baby bear," "the most perfect second baby bear," etc.). Satisfied, the trio is able to drift off into peaceful slumber. The quiet, loving tone of the text is echoed in the muted shades of the watercolor-and-pencil illustrations offset by soothing cream-colored backgrounds. While this story will not be enough to put to rest children's basic insecurities and endless jockeying for their parents' most-favored status, it does inject some unobtrusive bibliotherapy into a deftly presented bedtime story.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews