ALA Booklist (Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" is given a juvenile twist as Pizzoli and Barnett team up for another wonky winner. The bright digital illustrations pop with polka dots and sound bites as three children discuss how many ways they feel affection for each other. Happy oinks intersperse the pages as the children try to define their fondness: "I love you like a pig." Other kooky reactions come up: the kids are happy like a monster, smiling like a tuna, funny like a fossil, or crazy like raspberries. "Lucky like a window" shows a pig and a little girl munching on big pieces of pie, which had been cooling in an open window. But always, the oinks return. The simple line drawings, the generous white space, and the diverse faces of the children and funny animals brighten the message with the accessible illustrations. A quirky, nutty salute to the many moments of emotions, and a fun read-aloud as children ponder the silliness surrounding true friendship.

Kirkus Reviews

Love doesn't always make sense.How do you love like a pig? You share a birthday cake or a bubble bath, of course. How could a window be lucky? It is, if it has a blueberry pie cooling on its sill. And how, just how, is a fossil funny? If you put it on your head! This nutty ode to affection has echoes of Ruth Krauss in its sensible absurdity. It begins by listing the many ways love makes the narrator (presumably the adult or child reading together on the title page) feel: "I'm happy like a monster. // I'm lucky like a window. // I'm smiling like a tuna. // Because I love you like a pig." Then it dips into the antics of the loved one ("You're crazy like raspberries"), followed by declarations of contentment ("I like you like a tree"). Each section ends with the titular phrase, punctuated by the resounding chorus, which extends across a double-page spread: "OINK / OINK / OINK / OINK." Pizzoli's digital illustrations keep up with Barnett's wacky sensibilities at every turn. Ethnically diverse tots (and a pig, along with a few other critters) cavort merrily through the pages. Children will especially enjoy spotting the two mice that scamper throughout. This may leave readers pondering the many forms that love can take, but when is that ever a misstep? (Picture book. 3-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

For kids, similes are a gateway to the world of figurative language, but they-re also ripe for absurdist comedy, as Barnett (Triangle) and Pizzoli (Good Night Owl) prove. -I-m happy like a monster./ I-m lucky like a window./ I-m smiling like a tuna./ Because I love you like a pig,- writes Barnett, adopting the cadence of an affectionate, improvised ditty. The silly sincerity of the text goes together with the goofy innocence of Pizzoli-s minimalist cartooning like, well, peas in a pod. Choruses of -oinks- appear between stanzas, adding irresistible invitations to make noise. Some lines are head-scratchers by design (-You-re sweet like a banker-), but all encourage big, imaginative thinking: what does it mean to love someone like a pig? (Parties and good times, based on the evidence Pizzoli presents on each passing page.) There-s a nifty poetic inventiveness throughout that families and language arts teachers can build on-because, come to think of it, a window is pretty lucky when a pie is placed on its sill to cool. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

PreS-Gr 1Pizzoli strives mightily to make sense of Barnett's spare text, but readers may still be left mystified as to how one can be "lucky like a window" or "sweet like a banker." The rounded figures depicting children of many races, his pastel palette, festive polka dots and pennants, and a generally upbeat ambience convey the happy nature of Barnett's silliness. The appealing artwork and fun refrain go just so far in this head-scratching bit of absurdity. The entire book feels like a party, but the substance is as incorporeal as a mouthful of cotton candy. VERDICT Purchase only where Barnett and Pizzoli are popular.Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY