"Somebody / loves you / deep and true. / If I weren't / so bashful / I'd tell you / who." Hopkins gathers Valentine's Day poems by children's poets Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Heidi Bee Roemer, and others. Since these are easy-reader poems, they tend toward the roses-are-red variety, but they are all sweet and sometimes even funny. Adinolfi's art features lovestruck kids of different ethnicities.

Gr 1-2-These beginning readers relate a single anecdote about each of their subjects. Krensky tells a great deal about the character of our 16th president in this humorous account of when, wearing a new suit, Lincoln rescued a pig stuck in a mudhole. The colorful illustrations flow across the pages and complement the text. In relating one incident, Lakin reveals many facts about Keller and Annie Sullivan. In this story, Helen is caught in a tree during a storm and is rescued by her teacher. It is then that the child learned of "the power of Nature" and "the power of friendship." The cartoon illustrations are dominated by blues, greens, and pinks; those in Keller are somewhat amateurish. The texts are straightforward; however, Lincoln contains undocumented dialogue. Both books include short chronologies.-Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.