30 Books to Share with Kids and Teens on Valentine’s Day

There are plenty of books for kids and teens that are explicitly about Valentine's Day, which are fairly easy to find. Today, I'm sharing books that don't necessarily talk directly about Valentine's Day, but which embody the fun and the spirit of the holiday. Links are to my reviews, when available.

Babies & Toddlers

• My Lucky Little Dragon by Joyce Wan
  In this board book, a series of colorful animals introduce sweet pet names for parents to call their little ones.
• Grandma Calls Me Gigglepie by J.D. Lester, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata
  This is another board book about animal nicknames, this time celebrating the special relationship between young children and their grandmothers.
• The Nice Book by David Ezra Stein
  This book shares a long list of reminders about how to be nice, accompanied by abstract illustrations of various wild animals showing signs of affection.
• All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri
  Different baby animals love to be kissed in different ways - but nobody's kiss is better than Mommy's!
• The Way I Love You by David Bedford and Ann James
  A spirited little girl loves her sweet dog in many ways.
• Always by Emma Dodd
  An baby elephant's parent reminds the baby that he will always be loved even when he sometimes misbehaves.

Preschoolers

• Henry in Love by Peter McCarty
  Henry, a young cat, falls in love with a girl named Chloe and declares his devotion by sharing his delicious blueberry muffin. One of the only age-appropriate love stories for kids under five!
• A Hug Goes Around by Laura Krauss Melmed
  This book celebrates the love of family as they mark their day with hugs.
• My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
  Colorful geometric shapes come together to make different animals, who express a range of emotions from anger to love.
• I Love Animals by Flora McDonnell
  A little girl loves all the animals on the farm, and they love her right back!
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean
  No matter what he steps in or how stained they become, Pete the Cat loves his white shoes - and loves to sing about them, too! 

Early Elementary

• Panda Kisses by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Kay Widdowson
  A little panda tests out all kinds of kisses to find out which is best.
• Princess Hyacinth: The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated by Florence Parry Heide and Lane Smith
  A princess who floats unless weighted down finds love with a boy who flies kites. Laughs ensue.
• Henry’s Heart by Charise Mericle Harper
  This STEM-themed picture book shows what happens to the heart of a boy named Henry when he runs, sits down, and falls in love.
• Jasper John Dooley: NOT in Love by Caroline Adderson,
  Jasper John is not in love, but he might pretend to be if it means he gets to play on classmate Isabel's trampoline.
• Love is in the Air by Jonathan Fenske
  A kite and a balloon become friends, but changes in circumstances - and altitude - keep trying to drive them apart. 

Upper Elementary

• Emma Emmets, Playground Matchmaker by Julia deVillers
  Fourth grader Emma Emmets, who is not yet into boys, accidentally becomes a matchmaker for her classmates when a friend credits Emma with finding her a boyfriend.
• The Candy Smash by Jacqueline Davies
  Jessie Treski upsets her brother and many of their classmates when she creates a Valentine's Day survey questioning everyone about their secret crushes.
• The Cybil War by Betsy Byars
  In an elementary school love triangle, best friends Simon and Tony fight for the affections of Cybil Ackerman, a smart and generous girl in their class.
• Revenge of the Flower Girls by Jennifer Ziegler
  Triplets Dawn, Darby, and Delaney Brewster set out to ruin their sister's wedding to convince her she is marrying the wrong guy.
• French Ducks in Venice by Garret Freymann-Weyr and Erin McGuire
  Two ducks are distraught when their friend, Polina a California seamstress, ends her romance with a movie star named Sebastian Sterling, and she must explain that the end of a relationship is not the end of the world. A great alternative to some of the more unrealistic "happy ever after" stories. 

Middle School & High School

• The Boy on Cinnamon Street by Phoebe Stone
  Thumbelina (formerly called Louise) is trying to forget her previous life on Cinnamon Street, where terrible things happened to her, when a series of mysterious love notes begin appearing on her doorstep.
• Sweet Treats and Secret Crushes by Lisa Greenwald
  On a snow day, three best friends work out the boy drama in their lives while delivering fortune cookies to everyone in their apartment building.
• A Song for Bijou by Josh Farrar
  Alex Schrader does not know what he is in for when he develops a crush on Bijou Doucet, a new girl in the neighborhood who is a survivor of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and whose strict family does not allow her to date.
• Fake Me a Match by Lauren Barnholdt
  When Avery is put in charge of the class matchmaking project for charity, she promises to rig the results so that her new stepsister is matched with the boy she likes. When a teacher catches on, Avery know it's just a matter of time before she is in huge trouble.
• How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
  Beatrice and Jonah are outsiders and best friends who know their friendship will be limited by Jonah's ultimate plan to disappear.
• Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
  Amy, a teen girl with CP and Matthew, a teen boy with OCD, form an unlikely friendship - and later, romance - when Amy decides to attend school for a year and Matthew is assigned to help her.
• Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
  Fifteen-year-old Amelia falls in love with her coworker at the grocery store, an older man whose heart has been badly broken.
• Not Exactly a Love Story by Audrey Couloumbis
  In 1977, fifteen-year-old Vinnie makes an obscene phone call to a girl's house which leads to a surprising friendship in which the two teens tell each other things they would never say to anyone else.
• Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg
  Levi and Macallan have been inseparable best friends since seventh grade, but both of them sometimes wonder about the possibility of becoming more. 

5 Reading Goals for 2015

I spent part of New Year's Day considering what goal to set for myself in the 2015 Reading Challenge on Goodreads. I became frustrated pretty quickly because every goal I had in mind was specific to one type of book, but Goodreads only allows me to track the total number of books marked with a 2015 read date. Finally, I decided to plug in 500 books - 9 books fewer than this year - and to supplement that basic goal with some more specific ones. These are listed below.

Goal #1: Read Through History

I like historical fiction. I find it easier to understand history when there is a character to empathize with and a plot to follow. Over the summer, I got the idea to publish a year's worth of reviews of historical fiction novels for kids and teens to help me get a better sense of history, and to encourage me to read some of the well-known titles I have missed over the years. Though I started reading the books in August, they will all be posted in 2015, one per week, for 52 weeks. The feature is called "Reading Through History" and I am reading the books in chronological order based on their setting. The first post goes up tomorrow, as my first Old School Sunday of the new year.

Goal #2: Go Easier on the ARCs

In 2014, I combined my two blogs into one, leaving fewer days in my line-up for posting book reviews. This seemed like a wise decision with a new baby at home, and it has worked out fairly well. I have stuck with Old School Sunday, and participated semi-regularly in Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, and I've reviewed a picture book almost every week. The only problem is that a significant portion of the new books I've read and reviewed came from Edelweiss and NetGalley, meaning that I have missed out on a lot of books that were not available from those services. I'm not quite sure yet how I will do this because I already have so many ARCs waiting to be read, but I hope to focus at least a little bit more on finding books at the library after they are published instead of only reviewing ARCs.

Goal #3: Be Proactive About Picture Books

I am going to stop accepting picture books for review in 2015. The ones I've received have been fine, but not amazing, and because I have spent my time on them, I've wound up missing almost everything published by any of the major publishers. I only read one title from the Cybils finalist list, and I couldn't make a Caldecott prediction now if my life depended on it. When I was working, I used to check in, or at least review, the new picture books pretty much every time they arrived at my branch before they went out on the shelves. Now, as a patron, I often don't even know the books exist unless they happen to be on a new books display on the day I visit the library. My goal is to pay better attention to what is being published each month and to use inter-library loan to actually borrow the books and bring them home to read and review so I can continue to be in the loop, even when I'm staying home with Miss Muffet.

Goal #4: Phase Out YA 

I have almost completely stopped reviewing YA. Part of the reason is that I am just not that into reading about teenagers having sex, and it seems like that is happening in a lot of the books I pick up. The other part of the reason is that I really love middle grade and want to save as many spots on my review calendar for middle grade books as I can. I continued to review YA for years after leaving my teen librarian position, but since I don't have any plans to work with teens in the near future, and I won't have a teenager myself for 12 more years, I feel like I can let this part of my professional development go for now. There might be a few YA ARCs on my reading list that I requested before I made this decision, but otherwise, I will not be posting YA reviews in 2015.

Goal #5: Bring Back Books for Beginners

This year, my blog was very light on easy readers. I reviewed a good number of chapter books, but as with picture books, I was not as aware of what was being published at the easy reader level as I have been in the past. Based on the small number of nominations we had for Cybils, I think it is also possible that not as many easy readers were published this year, but even so, I'd like to do better at being on top of what is being published, especially since not many bloggers regularly review books for beginning readers.

Do you have any reading goals you hope to follow in this new year? Share in comments!

Flannel Friday: One, two, three BLOW!

"One, two, three, BLOW!" is a simple rhyme from Wriggle and Roar: Rhymes to Join in With by Nick Sharratt and Julia Donaldson. The first verse goes like this:

Three red candles

In a row.

One, two, three, 

BLOW! 

There are three more verses:

The biscuits (or cookies) are up too high ("One, two, three, SIGH!").

Tigers are on the prowl ("One, two, three, GROWL!") 

And monsters appear in a dream ("One, two, three, SCREAM!") 

I think of this rhyme as the next step up from something like Let's Make a Noise. It invites everyone to participate by asking them to count and to make a specific sound, and provided you can come up with more rhyming words, you can adapt it however you like. I obviously have not posted the full text here because it is copyrighted, but if you can't find the book, feel free to email me, and I will be happy to share.

Flannel Friday is a weekly round-up of ideas for using flannel boards and other props at story time. This week's host is Anne.

Cybils Finalists: Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books

The Cybils finalists have been announced, so at long last, I and my fellow round one judges in the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category  - Caroline Flory, Maggi Idzikowski, Mike Lewis, Kimberley Moran, Debbie Nance, and Melissa Taylor - are able to share with you our shortlists. These lists are the end result of hours of reading, reviewing, and discussing, and they represent the best-written books published this year that beginning readers will love to read. 

Easy Readers

• Extraordinary Warren: A Super Chicken by Sarah Dillard (Aladdin)
• Okay, Andy! by Maxwell Eaton (Blue Apple Books)
• Clara and Clem Under the Sea by Ethan Long (Penguin USA)
• Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey by Alex Milway (Candlewick Press)
• The Ice Cream Shop: A Steve and Wessley Reader by Jennifer E. Morris (Scholastic)
• Inch and Roly and the Sunny Day Scare by Melissa Wiley (Simon Spotlight)
• My New Friend Is So Fun! by Mo Willems (Disney-Hyperion)
  

Early Chapter Books

• Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend by Anna Branford (Atheneum)
• The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure by Doreen Cronin (Atheneum)
• The Lion Who Stole My Arm by Nicola Davies (Candlewick Press)
• Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon (Dial Books)
• Lulu and the Rabbit Next Door by Hilary McKay (Albert Whitman & Company)
• Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake by Julie Sternberg (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
• Lulu's Mysterious Mission by Judith Viorst (Atheneum)

View this list, along with our blurbs, on the Cybils website. 

Starting today, these books will be handed over to the round 2 judges: Narineh Ferderer, Amanda Furman, Catherine Nichols, Mia Wenjen, and Matthew Winner. They will choose one winner from each subcategory, which will be announced on February 14.