Little Love List

By Bethany Clark & Summer Macon

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Summer Macon has illustrated more than 30 picture books, most of them focused on early childhood and here she has teamed up with Bethany Clark whose debut picture book was You’ve Got Yoghurt in Your Nostrils. That title alone should tell you that you are dealing with a realist here.

The LIttle Love List however, is a touch sentimental. It is a heartfelt love letter from parent to child listing all the many ways and times that a child receives unconditional love. Young children’s lives are full of ups and downs, mood swings, active and quiet times. Throughout it all there is Mum, ready to reassure, share, admire, comfort, and more.

Summer Macon’s snazzy and vibrant illustrations show us all these different times shared by parent and child, in page after page filled with energy, wit, and understanding. The mostly rhyming text falters occasionally but is generally easy to read alound.

This is a charming book to share with a young child as it provides plenty of opportunity to discuss, reminisce, talk about all those moments, memorable or otherwise, that you have experienced together. It did prompt me to revisit Elizabeth Barrett Browning saying it for the grownups in her sonnet How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways.

Affirm Press 2025

Bethany Clark

Summer Macon