Customer Reviews

The Story of Valentine's Day (Trophy Picture Books)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was wonderful. It gave a great explanation of how the story of Valentine's Day came about. It also had crafts and other fun stuff you could do in the back of the book. This book can teach the history and meaning/purpose of Valentine's Day in an interesting way. The pictures are wonderful. The bright colors add so much to the story. I would recommend this book in a hearbeat!

Although in the description of this book, it says it is for 9 years and up, the official library review of it recommended it for K-3. I would disagree with that rating. I bought it with the intention of teaching why we celebrate Valentine's Day to my kindergarten class. However, the book is much more technical with lots of different information about Greek gods and old traditions. It is not really appropriate for five and six year olds...TMI. What I wanted was a story...something like the story of St. Patrick or the history of why we fill Christmas stockings with goodies...a good story the kids could take away from class, that would help them remember why the holiday is celebrated. I was very disappointed with the book.

This colorfully illustrated book gives a broad view of Valentine's Day that is easily understood by preschoolers and one which school-age children will also appreciate.

Valentine's Day, generally understood as a celebration of romantic love, is a cultural phenomenon in the West. Sweethearts exchange cards, candies and gifts, and children in classrooms everywhere also participate in the tradition, inviting one another to "be my valentine," with pre-printed or handmade cards and candies, often competing to see who will receive the most valentines. But most people have no idea how the holiday came to be.

Clyde Robert Bulla's attractive, readable book lays out the most prominent theories about this mysterious holiday's origins, beginning with describing (in sanitized form) its probable origin in the first-century Roman festival of Lupercalia. When Christianity came to Rome, in keeping with religious practice of the time, the festival was dedicated to a Catholic saint. There are a few saints named Valentine, and Bulla gives brief biographies of two of the more likely candidates to have been honored with the day. He then traces how Valentine's day was observed in different parts of the Western world through the Middle Ages and into modern times. He closes with instructions for easy-to-make traditional valentine cards, and a recipe for heart-shaped cookies.

In a society obsessed with romantic love, it is refreshing and heartening to be given a historical context for the modern flurry of flowers, cards, and candy. Children who have read this book will benefit from a much richer understanding of what the day means.