I Love You the Purplest

Sometimes I get ideas from my kids, sometimes from my own kid-hood, sometimes from people I meet. One day, at a book signing, a mom told me that her sons always asked who she loved best. "I tell them," she said, "that I love them just the same."This made me think. Do I want to be loved the same? Do I want to be loved more? I thought about the way I love my own children and decided it wasn't the same, and it wasn't more or less, either. It was special. I loved them in a Robby-way or an Anneke-way or a Maaike-way.

In I Love You the Purplest, two brothers take a fishing trip with their mom. They ask Mama who has the best worms and who catches the most fish, and finally, who she loves the most. Mama explains that she loves each of them in their own special way--exuberant Max the reddest and quiet Julian the bluest. Together, she loves her sons the purplest. I Love You the Purplest is a picture book illustrated by Mary Whyte.