Looking for the best Valentine’s Day books for preschool? Check out our favorites!
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COUNTDOWN TO VALENTINE’S DAY
February is here, which means love is in the air! The stores are all decked out in red and pink, and little ones are getting excited about making valentines to give to their friends.
In addition to all the festive treats and crafts during this time of year, here are some great Valentine’s Day books that you might want to check out for your kiddos!
This book list includes both fiction and nonfiction books that would be great to read at home with your own kids or in your preschool classroom.
These are our absolute favorites & they’re sure to be a hit with your little learners!
Want to see all of our favorite Valentine’s Day activities? Check out this post!
VALENTINE’S DAY BOOKS FOR PRESCHOOL
If You’ll Be My Valentine: This rhyming book has a repeating pattern that is the same on each page. It always starts with, “If you’ll be my valentine,” then continues on describing what the character in the picture will do for the other character. On the page with the boy and his dog, it says, “If you’ll be my valentine, I’ll give you extra treaties. I’ll give you two and maybe three and let you lick my feeties.” It’s so cute!
Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! It’s Valentine’s Day on the farm, and everyone’s getting ready for the big dance that night. Little Duck gets everything all ready, makes valentines for everyone, and even invites Little Fox to join. In the end, they all keep dancing…until the cows come home! *If you love this book, check out these activities for “Giggle Giggle Quack” by the same author/illustrator team!*
Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day Is Cool: At the beginning of this story, Pete doesn’t think Valentine’s Day is very cool. But Callie helps him realize it’s a day to tell people how much you care, and that IS cool! So Pete decides to make a special valentine for everyone he cares about. This book includes 12 Valentine’s Day cards, a fold-out poster, and stickers!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Charlie Brown! This “Ready to Read” book (level 2) is a fun version with the classic Peanuts characters. In this story, Charlie Brown wants to give his valentine to the Little Red-Haired Girl, but he feels nervous. In the end, he never does give his valentine away, but he does get a valentine from all of his friends!
It’s Valentine’s Day: I love Jack Prelutsky poetry, and this book is a great collection of his Valentine’s Day poems with cute illustrations. Fun fact…When I taught 1st & 2nd grade, I would have my students memorize a poem each month, and the first poem in this book was one of our February poems! I can still recite it word for word!
Mr Goat’s Valentine: This book totally made me tear up! Sounds silly, but I just loved it! It’s Valentine’s Day, and Mr. Goat wants to do something special for his first love. He gets her a mixed bouquet of weeds in a tin can, rotten eggs (yum! haha), and he composes a song for her. In the end, he gives all of the gifts to his first love…his mom! It was such a sweet surprise ending that I loved, and I hope my son always thinks of me as his first love, too!
Duck and Hippo: The Secret Valentine: This fun books tells the story of Duck, who sends a secret invitation to all of her friends to meet at the park at 4:00pm. No ones knows who the invite is from, but they all show up and see Duck, who tells them that the best valentines of all are friends.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Dolores: This funny book is about two sisters named Dolores and Faye. When Dolores finds a heart-shaped box in Faye’s dresser, she can’t help but peek into it…and finds the coolest frog necklace. Dolores takes the necklace, which leads to some hilarious adventures!
It’s Valentine’s Day, Chloe Zoe! This sweet book is about an elephant who is so excited for Valentine’s Day! She gets all of her valentines ready for the exchange at school, but she somehow loses one for her best friend, George. She feels so sad, but George says being her friend is all that he needs. In the end, she finds the special valentine for him and everyone feels happy!
Celebrate Valentine’s Day: This nonfiction book is from National Geographic Kids and talks about the history of Valentine’s Day. It also shares different ways that people around the world celebrate this holiday.
Super Simple Valentine’s Day Activities: This is a great nonfiction series that shares fun ideas, crafts, and projects for kids to complete for each holiday. For Valentine’s Day, they share fun ideas such as a Heart Wreath, Button Heart Art, Candy Tic-Tac-Toe, and Love Bug Cards. Think of it like Pinterest, only in book form!
Holidays: Valentine’s Day: This great nonfiction book is from Bullfrog Books (they have a version for each holiday). I love this series because of the big & bright photos of real kids and families in each book. The text is simple and gives little ones some more information about Valentine’s Day.
Mirabel’s Missing Valentine: This is an adorable rhyming book about a mouse named Mirabel who is nervous to give out valentines to her classmates. While skipping to school, she loses her valentines all over town, and they make the townspeople smile. Once they realize Mirabel lost them, the townspeople return the valentines to her, and Mirabel feels happy that she made new friends.
Valensteins: If your kids love Halloween, they will love this book! Frankenstein (Fran for short) is making a paper heart, but none of his friends know what it is. They think it’s a mask, a bat, even a butt (yes there is a butt joke in this book!)…but they finally realize it’s a heart because Fran is in love. None of his friends like love (they think it’s gross!) but Fran isn’t deterred because he knows it’s about something you feel in your heart.
Llama, Llama, I Love You: We love the Llama Llama series because of it’s great rhymes, and this one is no exception! It’s a sweet book that I don’t mind reading over and over again.
Where is Love, Biscuit?: Oh, Biscuit, that silly puppy! My daughter always loved the Biscuit books, especially the pet-and-play ones (like this one) since they’re interactive and engaging.
Hugs: Touch and feel books (like this one) are always a hit in our house. My kids like to feel the textures on each page, and they love the colorful pictures.
The Story of Valentine’s Day: We have a few of this series, and it’s fun to share with kids the real reason we celebrate each holiday. This version talks about St. Valentine in an age-approriate way.
A Giant Crush: This book is about a bunny named Jackson who has his first crush on another bunny in his class (Cami). Jackson’s friend Cooper helps him tell Cami how he feels on Valentine’s Day. This book is a little long and is much more suited for kindergarten or first grade, especially since it’s about a crush.
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown: I loved the Peanuts series as a kid, but I’ll be honest….reading these books as an adult makes me so sad for Charlie Brown! That poor guy! Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is a classic in this series, and bonus…the book is shaped like a heart!
Where is Baby’s Valentine? We love all the Karen Katz lift-the-flap books over here! This one is great for toddlers (and even preschoolers!) to explore and engage with reading.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! Another series we love! Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse is a simple and sweet story about Mouse celebrating Valentine’s Day with his friends. *If you love this book, check out these activities for “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by the same author/illustrator team!*
Olive, My Love: Who else has read Olive, the Other Reindeer? We love that book at Christmas, and we were so excited to read the Valentine’s Day version! Olive, My Love has the same premise…Olive mishears something and goes on an adventure to figure it out! *If you love this book, check out these activities we’ve paired with it to bring it to life!*
Mouse’s First Valentine: Early one morning, Mouse follows his big sister, Minka, into the house. Minka gets out red paper, lace, and paste. What could she be doing? Making a valentine for Mouse, of course! This super sweet book is perfect to share with our preschoolers in February.
Snow Valentines: Harry and Emily are trying to figure out what to get their parents for Valentine’s Day. After a February snowstorm, they decided to make snow valentines! They make hearts in the now and write “I love you,” and their parents love their gifts.
The Night Before Valentine’s Day: I love the “Night Before” series, and this one is perfect for Valentine’s Day! It has colorful pictures, rhymes, and tells a fun story about kids getting ready for their Valentine’s Day party at school.
VALENTINE’S DAY SNACK RECIPE
Want to pair your Valentine’s Day books with a sweet treat? Try this recipe! All you do need is popcorn, pretzels, Chex cereal, and vanilla almond bark (similar to white chocolate but SO much tastier!)
Lay out parchment paper on a baking sheet, then put some popcorn, pretzels, and Chex cereal on top. Melt the almond bark in a separate bowl & drizzle it over the mix. Then you can add whatever else you’d like (we chose M&Ms and sprinkles). Mix it all together, then let it dry for a bit. Once it’s dry, it’s ready to eat. But I’ll warn you–it’s super addicting! Something about the mixture of sweet & salty makes it irresistible!
VALENTINE’S DAY FREEBIES
Need a fun Valentine’s Day-themed freebie to use with your preschoolers? How about two?! Make sure you download these FREE Valentine’s Day printable games. One is practicing letters and the other is practicing colors. Click here to read more about them and grab a copy for your kiddos!
VALENTINE’S DAY MATH & LITERACY PRINTABLES
I hope this book list helped you fill-in your Valentine’s Day lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool. If you want an entire pack of printable math & literacy centers for this theme, check out my Valentine’s Day Preschool Activity Pack.
SHARE YOUR FAVORITES
Do you have any favorite Valentine’s Day books for preschool? I’d love to hear them and add them to our list! Comment below or head over to Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and share there!
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Looking for other book lists for preschool and kindergarten? Check out these posts!
Happy Learning!
