Under the Love Umbrella by Davina Bell, Allison Colpoys (Illlustrator)

Synopsis (via Goodreads): 

Whatever you fear, come close my dear
You’re tucked in safe for always here
And I will never not be near
Because of our love umbrella

From this award-winning creative duo comes a book about the wonder of ever-present love. A stunning celebration of the joy and comfort that is always with us, wherever we roam in the big, wild world.

Who’s under your Love Umbrella?

𑁋𑁋𑁋

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

Under the Love Umbrella was a lovely book that all of my children enjoyed, although for different reasons. At the start of the book we're introduced to four children: Joe, Brian, Grace and Izzy. We're also issued a challenge of sorts: "There are lots of umbrellas inside this book. Can you help us find them all?" What child could resist? Even I was tempted to play along!

Initially, all three monsters tuned me out in order to look for the hidden umbrellas (some of their locations were very creative, and I was able to share my findings), but I like to think they heard some of what I said, if only subconsciously. My son is older, so I'm sure he heard more than he was letting on, but his main objective was finding more umbrellas than his sisters. After a few pages of this madness (I wanted them to look for the umbrellas and pay attention to the story), we started looking for them as a group before reading each page. (I highly recommend going this route, if you decide to read this with your kiddos!)

Once I started doing that, my son was noticeably more attentive to the actual story. I think he was able to relate to some of the circumstances the children found themselves in, like being alone in the dark, or when it talked about friends that wouldn't share. These are issues he's dealing with presently, so the correlation of these happenings with a love umbrella was creative and offered a different perspective. Yes, scary or unfair things may happen during the day or at night, but he'll always have a love umbrella waiting to encompass him. Feeling shy or left out, moving somewhere new, bad dreams, big dogs, broken toys, embarrassing accidents -- all of these (and more) are mentioned throughout the story.

I really liked that the author covered a wide range of situations that could make a child feel poorly, and them subtly reminded them that despite all of that, there's still a love umbrella. "My love for you goes on forever" was beautifully rendered by the illustrator (all of the pages popped with color and creativity), and I think this duo has gifted the world with something magical and lasting. I know it will be a book that we read again and again! I'm pretty sure there are even two moms on one page tucking their child into bed for the night, and I'm thrilled that this wasn't a book written solely for cookie cutter families. I truly believe everyone will find something to love within its pages.