Happy International Book Giving Day!

And Happy Valentine's Day, sure. But who doesn't LOVE getting a book as a gift?

This year, I gave my son My Golden Ticket, a personalized Willy Wonka book from Wonderbly. I actually bought this book back in 2017 when I first saw it, since I'm a huge Roald Dahl reader. I was just waiting for him to also fall in love with the author. A few months ago, he read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and saw the play, so I figured the time was right! He loves how this book makes him feel like part of the story he already knows so well.

For previous International Book Giving Days, I've combined the holiday with Valentine's Day and given (and received!) heart notebooks. The Pete the Cat bookmark was one of the Valentines my son gave him class one year, as was the bee paper and bee with a heart. The bee paper is seed paper, so his friends could plant their Valentine and watch it grow instead of simply recycling it after the holiday passed.

And, of course, there were the good ol' days of my kid being so little that he wanted to have me read countless picture books to him. These were just a few of our favorites. Check out a few others we loved, along with some books and a craft I shared with adults with disabilities.

We LOVE Valentines Books!

We have been reading Valentine's Day books at bedtime for almost a week now because my son is so excited about the holiday! There are a lot of great Valentine books out there, but we wanted to share a few of our favorites.

The Runaway Valentine

written by Tina Casey, illustrated by Theresa Smythe

This story starts in a card shop on Valentine's Day, and all of the cards are showing off, hoping to be picked to share their love. One card in particular is ready to be picked; he has glitter, lace, and could sing songs when you press a button. He knew he would be the first card picked! But he is too eager and gets swept under the card rack. He manages to escape the store and knows someone out in the world will pick him--and he's right! But he's not used in the way he originally expected to--he is too beautiful to be used as scrap paper! Will it all work out for this Valentine in the end?

We loved this story because it was fun to see how the Valentine would be used next!

Valentine Surprise

by Corinne Demas, illustrations by R.W. Alley

Lily wants to make her mom a Valentine, but can't seem to get the hearts just right. She tries every day of the week, but none of them look good. Now it's Valentine's Day, and Lily is all out of paper--she can't even try to make her mom a nice card! But she looks at all her imperfect hearts and gets an idea...

We loved this story because it helps learn days of the week, and also shows children that what they think is "wrong" or "bad" is still meaningful since it comes from the heart.

Rhyme Time Valentine

by Nancy Poydar

Ruby is so excited for Valentine's Day and her class party. She made custom Valentines for everyone, including a rhyme--Ruby loves rhymes! She keeps bragging about her wonderful cards, but on the way to school, a gust of wind blows them away. Ruby is sad she won't have anything to share with her friends, especially since all the red paper in the classroom has been used up. What will Ruby do to show her friends how much she cares about them?

We loved this story because both of my boys are in school, and are preparing for class parties. There are also some "unfinished" Valentine rhymes at the end of the book, and it was so much fun to see if they could finish them on their own. (They are pretty easy rhymes - the 3 year old knew most of them.) There are also instructions on the last page to make a Valentine that looks just like Ruby's!