Will You Be My Valenswine?

Poor Polly feels rejected, because all her animal friends have sweethearts. Thus, Polly sets out in search for a valentine, but asks inanimate objects such as a rose bush, and her slop to be her valentine. Kids understand how silly it is to pose such questions to a rose, and to slop, so they laugh. The illustrations are soft and simply rendered with little details, but enough to get the point across. The pages are colorful with lots of neutrals, greens, pinks, and reds. I'm partial to this story because it's about a parent's love for their child, and young children relate to that. The text is a blast to read aloud. Bateman works the meter like a pro, and I purposely read the story fast for emphasis. The 24-paged book only takes about 3-minutes to read aloud, thus I recommend it to the 3 to 7 crowd. Fun holiday story, or for year round reading as well.