Hello, everyone! Our book today is I Love You Already! by Jory John and Benji Davies, a silly story about a duck, a bear, and the things we do for friendship.

Bear is very much looking forward to spending a cozy day at home with his books and his tea, but his friend Duck has other plans. The excitable and energetic Duck convinces Bear to come out on a Sunday stroll with him, then pesters him relentlessly in an effort to bond. Annoyed, Bear storms off for a few moments of peace, but Duck still tries to follow, hurting himself in the process. Seeing that his friend is hurt, Bear takes a breath and explains that sometimes, he just likes to be alone, and that Duck doesn’t have to try so hard to impress him: Bear loves his friend already.

This was a fun book, and enjoyable if you don’t take it too seriously. The text is written in a comic book-conversation-style, and the two characters’ dialogue is really well-written and tons of fun to read aloud (funny voices are key for this book – more’s the better!). It also has the nice message that wanting to be alone doesn’t mean you don’t like the person you’re with – sometimes, it just means you need to be on your own for a bit. Only complaint: Duck didn’t seem to learn this lesson very well at the end – he was still pestering Bear all the way home – which was very funny but didn’t really sell the moral of the story. However, JJ loved the illustrations, and the length was good, and it gave us a few really good laughs, so we enjoyed this one overall. Baby Bookworm approved!