What Love Looks Like

“Love looks like a hug from the sun, snowflakes on my tongue, gifts from the sea, the smell of flowers, and a brook’s song. But best of all, Papa?”

“What?”

Love looks like you and me.”

One question must be answered before Afia can slip into a peaceful night’s sleep: What does love look like? With the companionship of her loving papa, Afia journeys to find love and learns that it is the warmth of the sun’s skin-tingling hugs, the babbling brook’s soothing song, and other mesmerizing gifts of nature. But Afia’s quest also teaches her that she may not have to go too far to see the emotion at the heart of the world’s wonders.

From the author of Black Gold, Laura Obuobi, and illustrator Anna Cunha comes a tender, poetic tale filled with serene and vibrant illustrations that capture love’s vastness and shows us that its greatest form is often the one between parent and child.

Laura Obuobi (Oh-bow-be) is the award-winning author of Black Gold, an NAACP Image Award nominee and Bank Street Best Book, and What Love Looks Like, illustrated by Anna Cunha. Born and raised in Accra, Ghana, Laura was a preschool teacher for eight years before switching careers into the publishing industry. Her time with preschoolers and picture books set the stage for her transition into writing for children. She is a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, and the writing for children and young adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Besides creative writing, Laura also finds joy in drawing, collaging, and painting.

Anna Cunha is a Brazilian illustrator, living and working in Belo Horizonte. She has illustrated more than twenty books, including the celebrated A Story About Afiya, and has won the AEILIJ Prize for her work.