By Sandol Stoddard Warburg
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 48 pp. $4.99 (paperback)
There are some people in life that you are always happy to see. It might be a neighbor, a best friend from kindergarten—or if you are very lucky, your husband or wife.
Reading I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg is guaranteed to evoke that person. I’ve heard that lines from it have been read at weddings, even though it’s a children’s book and a very small one at that. I think it should be read at anniversaries, too. Or birthday parties. Or almost any time.
Here are some excerpts that remind me of someone I love and why I love him:
I like you
And I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because
You know how to be silly
That’s why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me
till I met you
And I like you because
If we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me
I guess I don’t know why I like you really
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you
Because I like you
One of the many likeable things about this book is that it comes with an address flap, a seal, and a place for a stamp. You can mail it even though it’s not Christmas or Valentine’s Day or any official card-giving day. You can mail it just to say I Like You.