I have yet to read Kat Kronenberg's first book, <i>Dream Big</i>, but I am glad that she recognized the need to remain a moral, kind person in the pursuit of dreams. Children need to learn that from day one, otherwise their pursuit of their dreams is all about them and they lose sight of others' needs.

The book is filled with gorgeous, engaging illustrations paired with current, colloquial normal speech. I appreciate that a character exists in the book who sets the example for how to be kind even when someone treats you poorly, rather than a typical children's book wherein the adult figure brings the wisdom down on the kids.

I can see this book working well in a classroom, in homeschool, or just as bedtime reading for all preschool and elementary aged kids. It takes courage to be kind in the face of adversity and we need more courageous people in this world.

This is a cute story about the animals of the African Savannah learning to get along, be kind, care for others, and share things. Each animal learns a different lesson. The end of the book has tips for kids on how to be kind and share. I enjoyed the idea of the story, and the illustrations were beautiful. I just felt like the story was a little bit cheesy, as an adult reader. Young kids might really enjoy it, though.

I don't even know what I just read. The instruction manual for a new children's cult? Half the time, I thought the author must've been high on something.

Look, there's nothing wrong with writing books to inspire. But this one just hits you over the head. Also, it's weird. The pages of notes at the end further contribute to the feelings of confusion and disorientation. The termites are supposedly leaving hints throughout the book, like little riddles to be solved, but when I looked at the answers, I thought they were pretty obscure (and I'm coming at it as an adult reader). The notes are also strange because they talk about stuff that wasn't even mentioned in the book itself. This "CATCH-M" business is only talked about in the synopsis and the end notes. I'm still not sure what this kiddie acid trip is all about:

CATCH-M is the name of The Magical, Mystical, Miraculous Star-dust that surrounds us, who can “WHOOSH” into our lives when INVITED by SHARED SMILES to “WHAM” IGNITE through our belief the gift of STAR-DUST in our CHESTS, giving us the extra faith and courage we need to LOVE big & achieve our DREAMS.

Baby Baboon came up with this catchy nickname as our reminder. She also has some fun things you can do alone, with family, friends, or in a classroom to celebrate LOVE as we all go on adventures to “catch CATCH-M” too-gather!

(That's copied and pasted from the end notes. If you can decipher that, you'll probably like this book more than I did.)

The whole "too-gather" business (what does that even mean?) and the overly modern and colloquial language in the rest of the book just turned me right off. There's talk of poop, bums, being buff, animals calling each other "dude"... And don't even get me started on the punctuation of the dialogue.

Some of the illustrations are quite nice to look at; they're perhaps the book's only saving grace. Unfortunately, the rest of it is just a chaotic mess.

Set in Africa, this story teaches kids the art of kindness. Delightfull illustrations, that are brightly drawn take us on a journey of learning kindness vis messages sent they thru the stars. This book is the sequel to Dream Big and both these books would be an amazing addition to any child’s library. Guaranteed to be read again and again.

Love big is a playfully narrated mythological fable about the power of kindness, sharing, listening and caring. Animals in the wilds of East Africa had quit believing in their dreams. They have become mean, miserable and hungry as their land has turned dry and desolate. Is this going to be their end??? No.

It starts with the beetle and its kind words to the rhinoceros even when the latter lashes out at it.The kindness of beetle melts rhinoceros heart. How did this kindness develops into sharing, listening, caring, believing, smiling big among the other animals forms the whole story.

All the animals learn they can be kind, they can share, they can listen, they can care and finally they can believe as a WE empowered by the magical, mystical, miraculous star dust that surrounds each one of us.

Overall, the story is inspiring. We are all humans but do we all know the power of love?Really? We are partial and stingy in showing love sometimes or on many occasions. Why is it so? The act of kindness, sharing, listening and caring (you can add some more not mentioned in the book) is missing in this world. We need to first understand what is the root cause. Through ‘Love big’ the author has gifted the readers the contentment of reading a meaningful book.

My verdict

I loved it. The book is humorous and the illustrations are picturesque which makes it worth reading. I recommend this book to readers of all ages. As for children, it needs to be read carefully as they would mistake things and get into unpleasant situations where they can fall victims.

I read this with my daughters (3 & 5), and we all loved the bright, bold, colorful illustrations throughout the book, and also the great message in the story. Mom and kid-approved!

An interesting book with a lesson that children can understand and benefit from. It is also very cute and doesn't bore.

Love Big has bright, colorful graphics and a wonderful message. The dialogue ruined the flow of the story for me--too wordy and the word choice didn't fit the feel I was hoping for in this title. One aspect I particularly enjoyed, however, was the inclusion of ideas at the end for further activities and learning.

Using colorful and attractive illustrations of animals, "Love Big" teaches children about loving others by being kind to them, sharing with them, listening to them, and caring for them. This book is very reminiscent of Disney's "The Lion King." This is a sweet book to read to young children.

Love Big is all about learning that being kind to others really isn’t that hard to do. Set in the African Savanna, Baboon closely watches his friends. They have become grumpy since the land became dry and they became hungry.

Through random kind acts, the animals learn that they might be hungry, tired, thirsty but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be kind to their fellow animals. It makes for a better living environment.

The book is filled with full-page bright, colourful illustrations that bring the African landscape and the animals to life. The expressions that have been drawn on the animals are really quite something.

At the back of the book is a guide for young children to read and learn all about how to be kind to others. There are also creative lessons too, making rhino horns and a lions crown, plus many more.

This is a book that would work well in schools. It is a story that will make children stop and think and anything that encourages kindness is simply worth reading. It is beautiful the whole way through and thoroughly enjoyable.

A concise message about being kind to others. A message that children of all ages can benefit from. Lovely illustrations.

Educational, funny, nice pictures, short...
This is well done and interesting for kids!
I recommend it!
4 stars

Love Big is a book that tries to teach lessons of being kind and sharing, but it falls a little short. It's centered on a stink bug who has a poop ball, which may be to try to elicit smiles from little ones, but it doesn't seem to be carried out well.

All of the different animals interact and talk about listening and other lessons, but it is hard to follow, with pages with lots of text and then pages with no text. The animals fight and are not nice to each other (but then is rectified with kindness). A song is incorporated in the middle for the reader to sing as well.

Overall, too many themes are explored with different characters and messages. This would have been better had it been a bit more focused.

The illustrations are phenomenal! That is the biggest bonus of this book. It's a sweet story with a good lesson. I wish that the author had been a bit less "wordy" but that's a preference of mine. The additional resources in the back are great. I can see this as a good read aloud for children around 8 or so.

This is a cute story book for kids about being kind. I loved the artwork, but found the writing to be a little cheesy. The added activities at the end are a nice bonus though.

The illustrations in 'Love Big' bring out the beauty of the Savnnah, the baobab trees standing tall, all the time, Palette of close colors is brilliant. The baboon hollowing out the drum, shows passage of time and gainful activity. The message of sharing is great but the book seems a bit long to make it impactful. The beetle being ridiculed could be a different story.
A little of the mythology background could have been provided.

I loved Miles' illustrations in this picture book. Kronenberg's story about the power of working together is magical, funny, and highly entertaining for children of all ages. This tale is a mythological fable that tells how the lion got his mane, how the hare learned to hop, the rhino learned to be kind (okay this is questionable if Rhino's are kind), and, in the end, the animals of the Savannah all learned how to get along. The last few pages (notes for two-leggers) was cute but really unnecessary and took away from the value of the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Greeleaf Book Group for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

An amusing and educational fun read with vibrant colorful and brilliant illustrations that would captivate any child. These illustrations made me laugh so I can imagine when the fun kids would have when reading this cute book. An educative fun package for any kid.

This book is teaching us that being kind it is not so hard after all. The illustrations are nice.
Thank you Netgalley for this book.

I finished this book feeling really conflicted in my opinion on it? I really liked parts of it and the overall message is obviously an important one to reiterate for children and for the most part this book did a pretty decent job of that. Then towards the end it sort of seemed like they wanted to see how many times they could say poop/butt in the last few pages which sort of threw me because that 6 year old boy humor did not seem to be the message the rest of the book was conveying. It's also definitely very long for little kids but some of the drawings and the nonsense words make it a little childish for the older kids so I had a hard time picking an age demographic for this book.