cover image Secret Sparkling Valentine

Secret Sparkling Valentine

Elizabeth Spurr, illus. by Colleen Madden, Sterling, $5.95 (12p) ISBN 978-1-4027-7140-8

As an auburn-haired girl in pigtails makes a shiny valentine, she drifts away in reverie: "a sunlit stream, a crystal pond,/ a rose-lined path leads far beyond." She follows shimmering bluebirds that are "looking for a special heart," and they lead her to a mailbox containing the valentine. On the final page, readers can sign their names on a heart-shaped valentine and give the board book away, though the dreamy, saccharine story is a bit too slight to feel all that special. Ages 2–5. (Jan.)