Petal and Poppy and the Mystery Valentine

August 1, 2015
Grades 1-4 Best friends Petal the elephant and Poppy the rhino each awake on Valentine's Day to discover a special treat. They're both sure the other is their mystery Valentine's gift giver, but as the day goes on and they find more and more valentines together, they each realize there must be someone else delivering all the cheer. Soon, there are more valentines in their snowy town than they can handle, and they come up with a great solution: distribute the warm, loving cards to everyone in the town. Briant's graphic-novel-style illustrations are a great match for emerging independent readers: the only words are in speech balloons, and the pictures provide helpful context clues. The appealing, bright colors and simply drawn characters are just as sweet as the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)