Stories of Love for Young Kids #ValentinesDay

Disclosure: Macmillan Publishers gave me copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Wow, it is February tomorrow. That means love is in the air. Today I am going to share some books about love for younger kids. Two are board books and the rest are picture books. Most of these are about family love and friendship love. The first is a fun board book called Love You Always by Roger Priddy and is part of the Shiny Shapes series. 

 As you turn the pages of this book layers of the shiny heart disappear. The book is written in poetry starting with "Roses are red and violets are blue..." One thing we love is the book is a bear talking to a duck. Needless to say Hazel is in love with it since she loves Ducky!! The words could be a child to a lovey or a parent to a child. It is really a sweet book with lots of sparkle!!

 Our second board book is Hedgehugs and the Hattiepillar by Steve Wilson and illustrated by Lucy Tapper.

In this book Horace and Hattie are best friends. They are hedgehogs. One day they find a caterpillar egg and when the caterpillar comes out they feed it and protect it. Then the caterpillar spins its cocoon and out emerges the flying, colorful butterfly. They decide to see if they eat a lot and sleep in a soft and silky bed if they will turn beautiful and colorful and be able to fly. It is a sweet story that introduces the life cycle of a butterfly to very young kids as well as the sense of wonder and fascination of nature.

Our third book for today is a picture book called All Kind of Kisses by Heather Swain and illustrated by Steven Henry.  

This book explores how various animals may kiss. The words are sweet and share a bit about animals like a grasshopper mouth opens east-west but not north-south. Throughout the story the various adult animals kiss the children animals and the various adults are different relations, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. It is a sweet book that gets the imagination going of how the animals may kiss. It does not tell you in the story. In the back of the book there are fun facts about each animal in the book. It is a sweet story for younger children to get them thinking about the animals. 

Next is a wonderful book for parent to child. It is You and Me and the Wishing Tree by Nancy Tillman. 

This is one of those books that makes you go "Aaaaah." It is so sweet. It is about a mother and child making a wish on a tree. The child tells the wish and the mother keeps it a secret and all sorts of magical things happen as the child keeps wishing throughout the day. After a day of fun and magic it is time for bed and the mother reveals the wish to be with the child. The pictures are beautiful and the story is sweet in typical Nancy Tillman fashion.

The next book is about sibling love. It is Hug It Out! by Louise Thomas.

With a day of fighting and hearing "Mom!" the mother in the book has a new idea for the sister and brother. Every time she hears them yell to her about what the other has done she tells them to "Hug it out!" After many hug it outs the kids decide to give each other space until they begin to miss one another again.

I was excited for this book until I realized it was about siblings since Hazel is an only child, but of course it could work a bit with friends as well. The pictures are simple but they definitely get the frustration a parent has when the siblings are fighting and give a sweet remedy. 

Our final book today is XO, Ox: A Love Story by Adam Rex and illustrated by Scott Campbell. This is the book that is not about family or friendship love. Ox writes a love letter to Gazelle. Gazelle sends him her form letter to send to fans and a photograph. Ox is so excited she wrote back he keeps writing and drives Gazelle a bit crazy. He takes her telling him to stop as a joke and keeps writing. It talks about faults and not being perfect and more. It is very cute. The words are literally just the letters back and forth.

It is a cute story that shows fan fascination and perseverance. 

I hope you will take the time to share some love with your young kids today!! These books are a fun way to do it. Please check them out!!