Summary and Response: The Love We Share and The Love We Give
Without love, there is no life. Love is crucial to our development and wellbeing. Being loved as a child secures growth and developmental prosperity. Love can be shown in different ways, with different words, gestures, or even different settings. In Love by Matthew De La Peña with Loren Long and You Matter by Christian Robinson, the authors can take us on a journey of love, describing an emotion that is complex and putting it into words and pictures for a child’s understanding. Although both books have similar themes, they describe them in different ways. De La Peña uses the words of love to bring us from baby to child to adult to child again. He talks of love in very loud ways, compared to the subtle use of the theme of love by Christian Robinson. Robinson explains all the ways we all matter, using “matter” to take us to an understanding of self-love and awareness. These books are important to the development of a child because they bring an understanding of “deep” topics exploring a child’s curiosity, introducing them to the bright words and pages that are engaging to them, and developing their emotional intelligence. [
Love by Matthew De La Peña is an immersive story as we go through the lives and memories of many people. We see different forms of love, a mother holding her child after a nightmare, parents smiling at their kid while they rest, or a grandpa taking his grandson fishing. As the book gets further, we explore darker themes. We see a man leaving his son, as the son cries under the table, waiting for it to be over, for his parents to stop arguing. He knows that his Dad loves him, but he has to go because sometimes the people we love leaves whether it is for right or wrong reasons. We see love again as parents watch their child play in the rain or when the mailman does his job every day with a smile on his face.
Love does not focus on one aspect of love but on many. We get to see the hurt, the laughs the joy. While reading this a child can understand the versatility of love. “The first value to note is that children’s literature provides students with the opportunity to respond to literature and develop their own opinions about the topic. This strengthens the cognitive-developmental domain as it encourages deeper thought about literature.” (Martha Crippen) Children would begin to understand the importance of love in their world. They would begin to reflect and analyze their relationships and the people around them.
When I read love, I’m pulled in with the detailed artwork, but the words themselves read like a poem. Love is fun, bright, dark, and sometimes scary. De La Peña creates this beautiful story with as many people as possible, creating so many situations and perspectives. You begin to form an understanding of everyone’s idea of love. Some of the “darker” themes like the child feeling lost, feeling unloved for that brief moment introduces an emotion we can all feel increasing emotional awareness and intelligence. When the child becomes aware of their emotions, they will be able to communicate more clearly about what their feeling or what others are feeling.
You Matter by Christian Robinson takes a different take on the concept of love; it shows us all the reasons why we matter. We matter because someone is out there who loves us. Someone willing to sacrifice for us. We matter because we are simply us. Using watercolor pictures and diverse characters Robinson shows it’s not just one type of kid that matters, it’s every kid. Every kid of all shapes, sizes, and colors. By being diverse Robinson encourages self and love and acceptance by honoring every child and the different types of families there are. “developing positive attitudes toward our own culture and the cultures of others is necessary for both social and personal development” (Norton). A developing mind needs to understand who they are and their importance, as well as other culture’s importance, to be a functioning member of society.
When reading both stories I see love; I see love with the artwork; I see love when I see those kids finding love in everything they do or see. The stories have emphasized if not encouraged the importance of the world and the people around us. They have explored a child’s curiosity when seeing someone who looks like them or even a moment that they could relate to. They begin to understand they are not the only ones they are others just like them and that’s what important, the realization that there are people like you and their stories, words, and thoughts matter too.
Final Draft Submitted October 1st, 2020
Works Cited
- “The Value of Children’s Literature: Oneota Reading Journal.”Luther College,www.luther.edu/oneota-reading-journal/archive/2012/the-value-of-childrensliterature/.
- Norton, Donna E., and Saundra E. Norton.Through the Eyes of a Child: an Introduction to Children’s Literature. Pearson, 2011.
