Coping with chilly weather, making and receiving valentines, enjoying chocolate hearts, and more are topics featured in these fourteen easy-to-read Valentine's Day poems. Prelutsky's humor and warmth come through in each selection. Newly independent readers will welcome this holiday collection, which includes Hafner's equally amusing illustrations.

Gr 1-3 If you have ever eaten the gift you meant to give to another, got caught in a third-grade love polygon, or had cherished property destroyed by pets, one of these 14 distinct poems by former Children's Poet Laureate Prelutsky will speak to you. In this new edition of Valentine's Day poems, Hafner's expressive illustrations update this collection with a bit more diversity of faces to introduce a new generation to these holiday gems. These images pair well with poems that are both funny and sweet, as Prelutsky's words aptly capture the age of early school years with poems set in the classroom, schoolyard, or home with odes to teachers, parents, pets, and "crummy" friends. Most poems translate well for this leveled reader, and rhythmic rhyming will help in decoding some of the more difficult words, but occasionally some vocabulary may be a bit challenging for a newly independent reader. Danielle Jones, Multnomah County (OR) Library