I Love You: A Rebus Poem

by Jean Marzollo, Suse MacDonald (Illustrator)

The author of the I Spy series offers preschoolers a gently illustrated poetic tale with simple text, pictures to decode, and a loving message to share. By the illustrator of the Caldecott Honor book, Alphabetics.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Childrens, Love, Fiction, Animals, Family

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jean Marzollo was an American children's author and illustrator best known for the I Spy series, a best-selling and award-winning collection written entirely in rhythm and rhyme and illustrated by Walter Wick. Over her career, she wrote more than 100 books for children, parents, and educators, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, The Little Plant Doctor, and Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated from the University of Connecticut and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught high school English and later worked in educational publishing, serving for 20 years as editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out Magazine. Later in life, she began illustrating her own books.

Reviews

[SaraLaLa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a cute story including pictures, rhyme, and the phrase "and I love you" throughout. It'd be a great book for a beginning reader, since pictures are used instead of words with the exception of the words that are repeated over and over again. I also thought that the poem was cute, saying silly things like "Every sock loves a shoe, every ghost loves a boo, and I love you." (paraphrased from memory, so forgive me if I messed it up a bit).

[Dayna Stechel · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Awards: None

2. Appropriate grade level(s): Prek through second grade

3. Original 3-line summary: this book is a poem about objects and animals that go together. At the end of every verse, “I love you” is written. It rhymes the last word of each line in each verse.

4. Origninal 3-line review: I think this book is a cute short poem that is better for younger students. It gives a picture for each ending word so that the reader had to look at the picture and figure out the work based on it and the rhyme. I also like the illustrations for each line since they are very colorful and depict the line well.

5. 2-3 possible in-class uses:
• have the students list at least 3 pairs that went together
• have them think of any other pairs that can go together

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This can be a fun one to use in preschool storytime if your group is small enough that everyone can see the pages. It does get a bit long towards the end, but the kids always enjoy it.

[Alexis Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is sweet and simple. Great suggestion for early learners.

[Yetta M. Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to enjoy reading with very young children. Highly predictable for children who
are read to. Fund to read together with one or more children.

[Gil-or (readingbooksinisrael) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the fill-in words would be a bit hard for kids to figure out on their own (like BOO), but it's very cute and fun.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read for pre readers

[Sara C-S · Rating 5 out of 5]

we loved this book! it had fun puzzles, cute rhymes, a great message and cute animals and illustrations!

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this is pretty cheesy. But I love the idea of the kids helping me to read it in storytime. And it's short and simple, and the rhyming can help them guess at what words are coming. I think this will work well in the "Love" theme. A fun twist in what I usually do.

2/12/14: Fabulous. Kids didn't pick up on the cheesy. They were so excited to be reading the book for me. The only picture they didn't get at first was "lake." They said "pond" first. I said that was true, but this word rhymed with "rake" and they got it right away. And they totally agreed each time I asked "Is this true? Does a ___ love a ___?"

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I placed this book on hold at the library because Miss Muffet is really into rebuses and because I was planning a Valentine's Day story time about love, hugs, and kisses. It turned out to be the perfect choice for Miss Muffet, who can pretty much read the book on her own after only hearing it a couple of times. Even for kids who can't read rebuses yet, it's a very sweet, but not-too-mushy book about love.

Read at preschool story time on 2/15/17: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

A classmate brought this book in as part of her Literacy History presentation on her daughters. This book was a fast read. I liked how at the end of the book, the full poem is written out with all the words, whereas in the body of the book it uses pictures for some words. This wasn't the most clever or touching "I love you" book I've seen though. I like many others much more.

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the words in this book have been replaced by easy-to-recognize pictures (hence, the term rebus). Lenore was able to "read" the poem to me the second time through. It was great to find a book we could enjoy equally.

[Maranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my very favorites. It is Andrew's favorite.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

toddlers and preschoolers will love this.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary:
Catchy rebus poem told in rhyme that young readers will love and be proud of themselves for reading.

[Shoshi G · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME!!!!!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebus rhyming fun

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and fun, just enough interaction. Uses pictures for words, but it's easy to read.

[Michelle Nero · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 year olds picked up this book. After reading it one time to them, they started reading it on there own! What fun to capture beginning reading of words & rebus pictures!

[Jenny Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only good example of a rebus poem that I could find to share with my lower elementary classes. They easily picked up on the rhyming scheme and read along with me.

[Hope4flowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grandma got this book for Henry. It's one of his favorites at 19 months