Hopkins, Lee Bennett, ed. 2005. VALENTINE HEARTS: HOLIDAY POETRY. Pictures by JoAnn Adinolfi. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-008058-2

Hopkins has collected twelve easy-to-read poems about Valentine's Day in one slim volume. He has included two of his own poems in the collection and two by anonymous poets. The collection is designed primarily for children between four and eight-years-old, but may be enjoyed through adulthood.

Each poem has its own two-page spread and is illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi with funny cartoonish characters that will delight the target audience. A few poems have the text and pictures presented on a white background, but most are awash in colors that stretch to all corners of the pages.The children in the illustrations have large heads and small straight bodies similar to the drawings the
children might make themselves.

Hopkins used a large type to make the poems easier for young children to read and to make the book more graphically appealing. Furthermore, Hopkins has included both a Table of Contents and an index of titles and authors in the book. These can be used for teaching about the tools readers use to navigate within a book.

As the collection centers on Valentine's Day, the poems center on affection and caring, but generally with a humourous twist. For example, in "Love Note for Leo," by Peggy Robins Janousky, Leo, the recipient of the love note is a pet dog.
In "Heart Art" by Marilyn Singer, the writer is making a valentine and getting herself so covered with glitter, glue and lace that she concludes, "I should sign/ VALENTINE/ And send ME off to you!"

Within the collection, my favorite poem is "For Her" by Lee Bennett Hopkins.

I am sending
a card
to our
school crossing guard
to let her know
how glad I am
that she's always there
to help
hurry-hurry-hurry feet
safely
across
a busy
street.

The illustration shows a crossing guard and three children one of whom is handing the guard a bright red heart seemingly cut from construction paper. Three cars all look rather like homburgs on wheels as a kindergartener might draw a car. The humor of the illustration is a counterpoint to the fairly serious side to this poem that reminds its readers of all the rarely-thanked people who help us get through our lives.

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