Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We started the celebration off the weekend before, with a storytime and craft session with our favorite group of mom and tots. We read many of the books below, and then watched the kids play while the moms created heart-shaped crayons. My sweet Little One had her first school Valentine's party on Thursday, and then we ate out as a family on Friday. Check out my cool heart crayons below!
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| You Color My World! We made heart-shaped crayons as valentines for LO's class |
One of the primary ways we get in the spirit of any holiday or season is through books! As an avid library patron, I had been collecting books with Valentine's Day themes for quite some time. My goal for this particular holiday was NOT to introduce her to the candy/gift giving traditions, but more to focus on the idea of showing love. Thus, you will not find a lot of character-themed Valentine's books on this list (though a certain Curious George Valentine's Day book is a favorite of LO). So here we go, books for a love-ly holiday!
This book is one of my favorites by Todd Parr (my other favorite is "The Thankful Book," which we read often around Thanksgiving and continues to be a favorite). As with all his books, the pages are alive with color and so an infant would even be mesmerized. The more older and more observant read-aloud listener will be able to describe to you what is going on in the pictures without you even reading, and usually goes something like this "the baby is throwing food and the mommy is smiling." Which pretty much sums up the I LOVE YOU book: it is about all the scenarios in which parents love their children, teaching them that they are loved no matter what.
by
Paul Schmid
This is a sweet little story about a prickly porcupine that likes to give hugs. Her classmates seem to tolerate her prickly hugs rather well, but Pearl wants full acceptance, without the "ouches" and "ows." Disclaimer: my gut reaction is that I HATE Pearl's solution to her predicament....let's just say it involves destroying some family household items on the sly. On the other hand, Pearl does exhibit creative problem solving, and it's for a good cause. I can't say that I give this one two thumbs up as a great morality tale, but the illustrations are adorable and my Little One always asked to read Pearl.
The real story is told by the illustrations, which are vivid and imaginative and prompt lots of discussion and imaginative storytelling. A book worm ignores her would-be lover in favor of reading a book (I can always relate to a bookworm!), who decides to bake a cake to get her attention. He then relates the recipe for his Apple Cake, with each step illustrated in creative detail. While there isn't much of a real plot, this book has been a favorite due to the fascinating pictures on each page. I'm certain that LO remembers more about the pictures than about the fact that he was trying to seduce a lady that liked to read.
This falls in the category of cute animal book. There isn't much of a plot, and the flow is a but random, but there isn't a child on the planet that won't like seeing animals big and small getting and giving kisses. This was not a favorite of LO or myself (probably because there's nothing compelling about it), however she seemed to enjoy it on the three or four occasions that I pulled it out to read.
I really want to like this book. My sweet Little One struggles with separation anxiety, even though she has been going to day care full time since she was six weeks old. We work really hard to explain to her that she doesn't need to cry or be worried when we drop her off, because we love her very much and we will always come back for her. This book attempts to broach this topic. I love the idea of a "love wave" and we use this concept when we talk to her about our time apart. I HATE that mommy goes to work to make cookies and daddy goes to work in an office. I know that every mommy and every daddy have a different job, but the traditional gender typing is a bit much for me. That said, we read this one several times and LO seemed to like the end of the book, where the love waves circle around the sleeping baby.
by
Nancy Tafuri
Another "cute animal" book, but this one is much better in my opinion. The story is told in a series of double-spread, full-color illustrations of farm animal babies getting kisses from their mommas. You can often see the animals from other pages in the current illustrations. Gorgeous book with a sweet theme of baby love.
This is the only book on this list with a distinct "Valentine" theme to it. Little One liked it so much that she calls it by the characters names - "read me Jasper and Lilly, mom!" This is a sweet tale of a rabbit, Jasper, looking for the perfect valentine for his wife. In the end, the best valentine is his love for her. This one is a gem.
To Little One, this is the "my kiss book." I'm pretty sure she is very confused about what it's really about, but she loves to blow kisses at every page. As with all stories, there is a deeper understanding behind the simple, poetic text....but we were content to blow kisses and watch them grow.
I am certain that this book is meant for an older child, that has a sense of what a Zombie is and maybe an appreciation for the macabre. My sweet LO does not meet either category, and therefore I was certain she would not care for this book. Oh how I was wrong. She squeals with delight when I pull out "MORTIMER!!" and this was her hands-down favorite among the Valentine's Day lineup. It is a sweet story with hilarious illustrations, and I would definitely recommend for school-aged children.....and maybe an adventurous toddler or two :)
This is the first of the "How do dinosaurs....?" books that we have read. Perhaps it coincided perfectly with our new membership at the new Science and Nature museum in town, because LO loves all things dinosaur. I know this is a popular series, but I have not read any of the other offerings. This book provides a delightful insertion of dinosaurs of all shapes/sizes/colors into typical scenes in a young childs life. Again, the lesson learned is that parents love their kids no matter what. We loved this book.
