Little Aiden: A Love Book for Toddlers - Albert & Anna Choi - ★★★.½

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AUTHORS: Albert & Anna Choi
ILLUSTRATOR: Bettina Brasko
GENRE: Children's Picture Book.
SERIES: Little Aiden, #2
RATING: 3.5 Stars.

In a Nutshell: A sweet book reaffirming parents’ love for their toddlers, no matter what their little ones do. A bit too similar to the earlier book in this series.


Little Aiden is a typical toddler. From the moment he wakes up to the time he goes to bed, he experiences a variety of emotions - some good, some, not so good. But will this affect his parents’ love for him?

This picture book is written in the first person voice of the parent, using the simple sentence structure of “I love you when you are <<insert emotion here>>” on most of the pages.

This is the standalone second book in the ‘Little Aiden’ series, the first book being ‘Little Aiden: A Feelings Book for Toddlers’. As the minor change in the tagline indicates, the first book focussed on the child’s *feelings* while this book focusses on parents’ *love*.

I love the idea behind the book. Affirmations are quite important, especially for children so that they stay confident and trustful about their parents’ unconditional love for them. As such, such picture books with a positive reinforcement of a parent’s love work wonderfully. Imagine sitting in a cosy nook or in bed, snuggled under a blanket with your little one, and reiterating to your little one, ‘I love you no matter what.’ Such a beautiful way of offering reassurance and creating confidence!

The illustrations show Aiden in various moods as he goes about his day, laughing and crying and angry and excited and in a myriad other moods. Just as in the earlier book, Aiden’s little teddy bear accompanies him on all his adventures, and even reflects Aiden’s emotions through his own expressions.

The language is quite easy (or explainable), and toddlers will have fun identifying with Aiden’s various emotions and recognising when or how they themselves feel the same. The first book had some difficult words, so I am glad the vocabulary has been brought down to toddler level. The range of emotions has also been expanded.

Why then the relatively muted rating? Well, for most readers, this book might work much better. But I have read quite a few picture books by now, and the 5-star rating button is pressed only when a book manages to surprise me. This book generated feelings of déjà vu. Even if I ignore other picture books containing positive affirmations, the emotions, the sentiments, and the illustrations are quite similar, (and sometimes, even the same) to the first book of the ‘Little Aiden’ series. So there was no novelty factor here, at least for me.

All in all, it is quite a good book. I just wish I didn’t remember the first book so well such that I could have experienced this with a fresh mind and hence more enjoyment. I still recommend the book as a great bedtime read for toddlers, but with not as much excitement as I had recommended the earlier one.

The book is available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

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