I LOVE YOU JUST ENOUGH by Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuysen. Illus. Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen. Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2014.  32p. ISBN 978-158536839-6 hc. $16.95   Gr. 2-4  E PIC

I LOVE YOU JUST ENOUGH by Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuyzen is Story 5 in the Hazel Ridge Farm Stories which feature some of the animals rescued and rehabilitated on the family’s wildlife refuge in central Michigan.  The author narrates her daughter Heather’s story from the summer she rescued an abandoned wood duck.  Heather takes the rehabilitation process seriously, providing natural pond food for the duck and teaching him how to live independently.  Her father warns her that saying goodbye to her summer companion will be hard, but a duck’s home should be with other ducks. It’s a challenge for Heather to love the animal “just enough” to let him leave at the end of summer, but she knows what must be done.  This story has enough text to equal a beginning chapter book for Grades 2 and 3, but is even better in picture book format with realistic illustrations painted on canvas by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen.  Look for the other four books in the series to make it a full day of reading.

Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preveiw Center