Book: Of Love and Pies, Hardcover, by Sheila McGraw

Can there ever be too much love or too much pie? In this sweet and boisterous story, whenever the narrator says 'I love you' somewhere a baker bakes some pies. As the pies accumulate, the children's hands and faces are always sticky, and all their clothes have berry stains, while outdoors, kids who once got stuck in the mud now get stuck in the pies!

Finally, when pies are heaped as high as the moon, and everyone is on pie-overload, something's got to give, and a satisfying compromise brings the story to a happy and loving resolution.

I can’t imagine having too many pies. But, perhaps like everything else, too much of any one thing can become overwhelming.

If so, there would be so many pies in the world that people would be playing in them, squishing their juicy goodness all over themselves and building pie trails far into the sky, perhaps all the way to the moon. Too many pies? Perhaps. There has to be a compromise, wouldn’t you agree?…

Sheila McGraw’s picture book story, Of Love and Pies, is a funny, pie-filled story about love. Or, perhaps it’s a love-filled story about pies. You choose. Told in rhyming verse and accompanied by charming illustrations, this gem of a story will entertain and amuse young readers of all ages as they compare the need for “I love you’s” with the need for more pies.

The plot follows the supposition that the statement, “I love you,” equates to another pie for each time the statement is shared. And this makes the possibilities both outlandish and humorous. Like the nonsense verse of Dr. Seuss and the compassionate loving bond of stories like Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever, this story will capture our hearts more intensely with each reading. Beautifully told and funny, too. Personally speaking, though, can one really tire of either “I love you’s” or pies?

— Reviewed By
Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers’ Favorite