Can you believe we're near the end of January already? Eleanor is all excited about Valentine's Day coming up, so we rounded up a few books I bought last year, and scored some fun new ones at the library this year! I thought I'd share some of our favorites; and you can check out last year's recommendations too if you want even more Valentine bookish fun!
I Spy Little Hearts. This is standard I Spy fare; but with a rhyming text and small hearts to find on each page. Eleanor was not very interested in it last year, but this year she's old enough (at 3 3/4) that she can find all the things by herself, and she even went back through the book again, looking for different things. We probably spent a solid 20 minutes engaged in this one book! Rating: 4 out of 5
The Ballad of Valentine. This one is an adorable story of a hapless beau as he tries to connect with his love named Valentine, with a text written to the tune of Oh My Darlin' Clementine. I really like the story, and the down-homey pictures. (But fair warning: you WILL be singing Oh My Darlin' Clementine all day after reading it). Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Happy Valentine's Day Dolores. Dolores is up to her usual shenanigans with the help of her cat Duncan; this time revolving around a Valentine necklace she "borrowed" from her sister Faye's drawer, and then lost. Although I'm not sure that it necessarily teaches the best lessons, the illustrations are super cute, and Eleanor thinks it's hilarious. (Although she did ask "Why isn't Dolores being honest?" Hooray that she noticed!) Rating: 4 out of 5
The Berenstain Bears' Valentine Party. This one reminds me of the Valentine celebrations of my childhood - simple little cards handed out among classmates, not tons of candy or Pinterest craftiness. Eleanor really likes it too because each page has a couple of lift-the-flap Valentines to open and read. The insulting valentines that Sister Bear and Barry exchange make me chuckle. Rating: 4 out of 5
The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart. This is the first Very Fairy Princess book we've read, and we'll DEFINITELY be looking for more of them! Gerry is a sweet, super-accessorized little girl, who reminds me a lot of Eleanor. Gerry makes beautiful Valentines for all her classmates, even Connor, who pulls her hair ("because a fairy princess is always gracious"). But when Gerry mistakenly takes her dad's work papers to school instead of her Valentines, she's distraught... until she comes up with a properly fairy princess solution to her problem. Gorgeous illustrations, co-written by Julie Andrews, and a good message? Win-win-win. Rating: 5 out of 5Update for 2015: We still like all of these books! But this year we're also enjoying many more, including the following:
And, I designed some images for Eleanor's Valentines for her preschool class. They say "Sip Sip Hooray, it's Valentine's Day!" and all you have to do is punch two holes in them and slip a silly straw through. So I tweaked them a bit, and made generic pink and blue ones in case you want to use them too! Just click here to download pink and here for blue. They'll print 4 to a page. Enjoy!
Are you loving any other Valentine-themed books?
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