“I Miss You Most” by Cassie Hoyt

I Miss You Most

Cassie Hoyt
Tellwell Talent (2020)
ISBN: 9780228836063
Reviewed by Lydia (age 6) for Reader Views Kids (2/21)

“I Miss You Most” by Cassie Hoyt is about missing a family member a lot and thinking of all the fun things you would do with that person if you were together. Some of the ideas include drawing with sidewalk chalk and pretending to be different things and do lots of different things, like an astronaut, detective, and chef. Other thoughts are riding a roller coaster, dancing, singing, and eating ice cream together. In each of these things, the two people look like they’re having fun together. At the end of the story, it mentions different ways of remembering the person you miss, like through the phone or writing or drawing cards.

I like this book because it includes many things that I already do when I miss people. I miss my grandparents when I’m not with them, so I talk to them over the phone and with Facetime. I also have a pen pal whom I “talk” to by writing letters and drawing pictures. The other ideas in the story are neat; my favorite is diving off the diving board into the pool with a boy and his mom. I love swimming, and with my mom or grandma, it’s much more fun that way. Each of the pictures shows a kid having a fun time with a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, or friend; this makes me happy to see. The people in the pictures all look and dress differently, too. The book is the right length, and the pictures are colorful and cover the whole page. I think that kids of any age will like this book because it is about pretending and having a fun time with someone even if you’re not with them.

A Note from Mom: “I Miss You Most” is a simple but effective story. I have heard other stories about make-believe, but not an updated version like this one. Mentioning video chats updates the content; otherwise, letters and phone calls aren’t that new. This story is a great reading level for Lydia and her 5-year-old brother; she can read almost every word on her own and understand it all as well. She got excited about several of the adventures the characters were enacting together.