We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail

 Written by Masiana Kelly

Illustrated by Tamara Campeau

Inhabit Media

978-1-772274769

28 pp.

Ages 3-5

July 2023

 

This is a picture book about love. It's about how much love there is for a child, before its birth and after and even in the future, and it's the love that is seen in a northern environment of foxes, narwhals and muskoxen.  As such, We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail is a lullaby to a newborn.

From We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail, written by Masiana Kelly, illus. by Tamara Campeau

Speaking to their new baby, a family recalls how much they longed for the baby and how they celebrated its arrival. How do you express anticipation and adoration? They look to the familiar in their lives for demonstrations of love. There's the polar bear who loves to sleep and the caribou who love to run. In a northern environment, both green and flowered in the summer and crystal blue in the winter, and often vividly dynamic with the aurora borealis, there is much available to which the family can compare their love, both as it is and as it will be given.

From We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail, written by Masiana Kelly, illus. by Tamara Campeau

Masiana Kelly's text suggests a familiarity with those northern environs and, as an Inuk and Dene writer from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and as a mother, she obviously draws on her background. Her words speak of love and appreciation for her home of people and place. And that joy comes through with brilliance in Tamara Campeau's artwork. Oh, the colours and the life of those waters and skies, animals and land! These digital illustrations are filled with life, but then Tamara Campeau has always excelled at bringing the spirit of the north into her artwork and to the stories of others, like Grandfather Bowhead, Tell Me a Story and In the Sky at Nighttime.

From We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail, written by Masiana Kelly, illus. by Tamara Campeau

If you know anyone having a baby or just having had a baby, We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail would be a lovely gift to the family. It evokes the abundance of love and the closeness of family, and, no matter if the family lives in an urban landscape, in a prairie rural community, or a far northern region, We Love You As Much As the Fox Loves Its Tail will evince the joy of a new babe from its pages.