One Zillion Valentines by Frank Modell

I remember loving this book when I was a little kid. Reading it as an adult, I am not sure why I loved it so much. However, my kids seem to love it too, so maybe it is just a kid thing. 

I do think it is cute. It is a friendship Valentine book, rather than a romantic Valentine book. 

These two pals discuss Valentine's Day.

All the lovey-dovey stuff. Marvin says he loves Valentine's Day. 

Milton is not a huge fan of Valentine's Day because he never gets any. Marvin tells him he never gets any because he never sends any. Milton, being a typical cash poor child, says he can't send Valentine's because he doesn't have the money to buy them. 

Marvin is optimistic enough to counter any and all of Milton's pessimism. 

Marvin tells him that Valentine's don't have to be bought. They can be made. So both rush home to find Valentine making supplies. 

And they make a lot of Valentine's. 

These were some of my favorite pages as a little kid. I loved all the different kinds of hearts! I wanted to make all those different kinds of hearts. I liked that the hearts weren't Hallmark perfect. Some were wobbly and some were misshapen in parts, just like normal kid hearts. 

After all the hard artwork was done, Milton and Marvin slide a Valentine under every door on their street. 

I also loved these pages, of everyone being happy to see their Valentine heart. 

After all the Valentine's are delivered, they realized they made too many. So they sell the rest. This is, of course, an entrepreneurial kid's delight. Look at all the people, coming in droves. 

After all that selling, Milton realizes that even though they sent out loads of Valentine's, he himself is still Valentine less. So Marvin takes their hard earned cash and buys them a box of chocolate's to share together. 

Which they do to evident delight. 

Arthur's Valentine by Marc Brown

Marc Brown's Arthur is your typical.... third? fourth? grader. He is slightly unbrave and a little unsure about things, but he is game enough to keep on trying. I have never had any strong feelings about Arthur. I enjoyed the books as a kid, but never loved them.  

My cousin gave my kids a tape of Arthur being interviewed, which Gilbert loves. Having listened to it a lot, I have more of a sense of what Arthur is--a slightly pessimistic and earnest aardvark without a great sense of humor. Most of the humor in the books comes from other characters. I can relate to that actually. Especially as a kid, I felt that everyone else was funnier or thought up better comebacks than I did. And clearly other kids relate to that too. Arthur has been back burner popular for several decades now. Other books might come and go with flashier receptions of critical acclaim and award medals on the covers, but Arthur is always there, steady and faithful.

He has his own show on PBS too. My kids play Arthur games on pbskids.org a lot. 

Good ole Arthur.  

This book is about Arthur's secret admirer, who kept sending Arthur Valentine's, even though it wasn't Valentine's yet. 

This was worrying Arthur. Who was it? And how could he keep everyone from finding out about it?

Classroom Valentine's preparations.

One afternoon, after taking off his coat to play soccer, the Valentine's fly out and everyone finds out about them. Mortifying! 

Finally, Arthur gets a note telling him to come to a specific seat in the theater at a certain time. And there is Francine. Arthur tells her to close her eyes because he wants to give her a kiss. 

But just like she has always teased him, he teases her. It is a sweet sort of teasing though. 

The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting illus by Jan Brett

Although I stand by my previous statement that Jan Brett's writing leaves a little to be desired, her illustrations are superb! This book was written before she decided to take writing into her own hands and therefore, I enjoyed it a lot more. 

Eve Bunting has written a lot of books. Close to 200 I believe. I am not in love with all of her books, which tend to be a little... dry. More informative than entertaining. Still, she has some good ones! 

This particular one is about Mr and Mrs Bear, a happily married couple.

Mrs. Bear, who in the normal course of events sleeps through Valentine's Day, is determined to wake up and celebrate with her husband. 

So she sets her alarm for Valentine's Day. 

I like her alarm clock.

She makes preparations before waking up her husband. 

I love the pictures in neutral colors with pops of red. 

This fur coat cracks me up! Why does she have such an elaborate fur coat when she is supposed to be sleeping all winter? I think she should give it to me. It looks spectacularly warm. 

Mrs. Bear unearths the honey she hid last fall

And puts a lovely collection of bugs into a serving bowl.

Then tries to decide which Valentine to give her husband.

When everything is ready, she goes to wake up her husband. He mumbles about just a few more weeks of sleep and goes back to sleep. 

Mrs. Bear is a determined bear. She goes out to get some ice cold water to wake up Mr. Bear.

Her determined face is marvelous.

Lazy Mr. Bear.

And then, just before she throws the water on him, he jumps up to surprise her. 

She gets a little damp. Which is what comes of people who try to wake up those who would prefer to sleep in. 

Some people might resent being soggy, but not bears apparently. 

They have a delightful Valentine's Day.

Mr. Bear had hid a box of chocolate covered ants for Mrs. Bear, which he hopes she will share. 

And after all the excitement of Valentine's Day, they go back to bed and sleep 'til spring.