All We Need Is Love and a Really Soft Pillow!

August 1, 2023
We all need love, but is it all we need? Poppy is large, fluffy, and blue, with hefty striped arms and big, owlish eyes. Little One is a teeny ball of pink fuzz, with smaller striped arms, little legs, and huge eyes. In a barren landscape of abstract orange circles, the two agree: "Love is all we need." (One thing they don't need: clothes.) Immediately, however, Little One begins to propose material additions: a really soft pillow or two, then, in short order, a roof, walls, water, chocolate, a bathtub, a cooking pot, a vegetable garden and a fruit tree, books, a toilet, and, of course, love. As each item appears, Poppy greets it enthusiastically, praising Little One's cleverness but insisting that now they need nothing more for a "sweet and simple" life. Then a storm batters them, blowing everything away. Grabbing Little One, Poppy clings to a deep-rooted tree. They are safe, and again they have nothing except love--though Little One, snuggling into Poppy's back, still has a really soft pillow. This book, with its fanciful creatures in their flat, isolated space, will provoke questions about what is truly "essential," not just in material terms. The duo needed strength, perseverance, optimism, and courage, at least--something the authors never acknowledge. Realists will note other needs. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A minimalist pair-bonding fable only for dedicated fans of Peter H. Reynolds. (Picture book. 4-8)

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August 14, 2023
Reynolds (When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left) and son set a title that’s reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm story “The Fisherman and His Wife” on a seemingly barren landscape; there, a furry blue bipedal creature and its pink offspring muse upon themes of love and necessity. When Poppy declares that “love is all we need,” Little One readily agrees, making a modest addition of the eponymous pillow. After Poppy concedes the point, Little One successively adds more objects to their life, and the account becomes a running narrative about what one might require to live. In addition to love—noted as the finishing touch to each new addition—the two soon accumulate a roof, four walls, running water, chocolate, a cooking pot, a bathtub, a vegetable garden and a fruit tree, books, and an outdoor toilet. But as soon as they’re nicely situated, a violent storm sweeps everything away, leaving only their love for each other—which, Poppy reminds Little One, is really enough, especially when fluffy Poppy makes a fine pillow. The cartooning’s swift black lines and washes of bright pastels give the pictures a composed-on-the-spot immediacy, but the affection-focused story neglects to acknowledge the importance of an adequate standard of living: Isn’t everyone as deserving of life’s essentials as they are of love? Ages 4–8.