The best picture books for kids to share on Valentine’s Day
Updated 2 February 2023
Are Valentine’s Day books for kids a thing these days?
Well, yes and no.
As a mum and now as a teacher, I use Saint Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to discuss two things:
- the origins of Valentine’s Day and the celebrations and customs which go along with it;
- the concept of love in all its many forms;
For many years now I’ve been using picture books as a springboard for discussing these things so I thought it was time I shared my list of the best picture books for kids about love, our hearts and St Valentine’s day.
Some of the books on this page explicitly mention St Valentine’s Day and some don’t. All are books that I think are good for prompting children to think about what it means to love and to be loved and about how we express love for our friends, family members, pets and for the world.
I like to keep the concept of The 5 Love Languages in mind here – the idea that we express our love in five different ways: by physical touch like hugs; by giving gifts; by spending warm, focused, one-on-one time with the people we love; by doing loving, helpful things for people; and by speaking loving words which affirm our respect for and delight in the people we love. The books on this page reflect those ways of expressing our love and it’s helpful to have this discussion with children. Of course, some children notice and can describe the different ways we show we love people without any prompting from us. Either way, it’s a lovely, life-affirming chat to have with them.
If you’d like to discuss Valentine’s Day with your child, you may like to begin by talking about how St Valentine’s Day is a day when many people like to think about and celebrate the love they have for the people in their lives. These people can be husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends but people also celebrate the love they have for their friends, family members, pets and even for the world. I also like to talk about the fact that hearts are a symbol of love because we often feel a kind of swelling, expanding feeling in our chests when we feel loving towards somebody
Oh, and if you’re interested in picture books about the origins of Valentine’s Day, I’ve written a post about that too. Hop over to this page if you’re interested in picture books about the history of Valentine’s Day.
I hope you enjoy these lovely St Valentine’s Day books for kids.
My 20 Favourite Books About Love and St Valentine’s Day
Suggested for ages: 0-4 years
Sometimes I’m Bombaloo is a book I often share with children in the classroom. It’s not a book that springs immediately to mind when we think about Valentine’s day books for kids but I do think it has a lot to say about love and acceptance. Sometimes I’m Bombaloo is about a little girl called Katie who’s usually pretty happy and can do lots of cool things. But, like all of us, Katie gets angry and sometimes she even explodes and has to have a bit of time to herself to calm down. When she explodes, Katie says she becomes someone quite different from her usual self and she calls the person she becomes “Bombaloo”. It’s scary being Bombaloo but her mum understands that and gives her hugs.
This is a great book for discussing how Katie’s mum shows that she loves her: she doesn’t get mad when Katie explodes because she knows that’s a normal part of growing up and that Katie is still a good person; she understands that getting so mad is scary for a child and she lets Katie have the time and space to feel her feelings and to calm down; and, when Katie is calm, her mum provides hugs and reassurance and then helps Katie put things right.
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
The forward is just beautiful and gives you an idea of the flavour of the book:
This book is my love letter to the world, as each one of us is worthy of love in all its forms and expressions, and we are ALL capable of adding light to the world when we listen to our hearts and choose love.
The book discusses how we express love for ourselves and for others by listening, comforting, offering hugs, choosing our words and actions carefully and taking care of ourselves.
Suggested for ages: 3-10 years
In the beginning there is light and two wide-eyed figures standing near the foot of your bed and the sound of their voices is love.
The book moves on to describe the sights and smells and sounds of a big city (it looks like New York) from a child’s point of view, with each double-page spread featuring a different child. The descriptions of these scenes are lyrical and beautiful and the author does an almost magical job of describing the small, often mundane interactions that happen in a child’s life and showing the love that’s inherent in them. This is a great book for opening up a discussion about how we know we are loved and how we receive the messages of love through our five senses when we are noticing and paying attention.
Suggested for ages: 5-12 years (and adults!)
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings is a book I use with almost every class I teach to start our discussion about our feelings. It’s a gorgeous book to handle because the pages are made of beautiful, thick card to accomodate the heart-shaped cut-out in its middle. The book starts out with the words:
My heart is full of feelings. Big feelings and small feelings. loud feelings and quiet feelings.
Then, on each page, the little girl who narrates the book describes how her heart and body feels when she is feeling brave, mad, sad, afraid, etc. The illustrations in this book are delightful and each emotion is beautifully described in detail. Every time I read this book aloud, I have the most amazing and enlightening conversations with the children. It really is the perfect book for starting to talk about emotions and for building children’s emotional literacy. It’s also great for talking about why we feel our emotions in our hearts and why we use hearts as a symbol of love.
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
Suggested for ages: 0-6 years
This is an old-fashioned story but the descriptions and conversations still feel very real and relevant and very relatable for children. It’s a great book for talking about the transforming power of love and about how the loudest, most glamorous things are not necessarily the ones which are the most valued or loved.
Suggested for ages: 5-7 years
Love the World is a very simple rhyming text about loving yourself (your nose, your toes; your eyes, your size; your walk, your talk;) and the world (the bees, the trees; the land, the sea). It’s a great book to use as a springboard for talking about why it’s important to love yourself, how special we all are, why we should love the animals and the world in general and so on. Why do these things matter?
Suggested for ages: 1-5 years
My heart is a window, my heart is a slide.
My heart can be closed or opened up wide.
The book has the most exquisite monochrome illustrations with touches of yellow and they’re perectly complemented by the sparse but lyrical text. I especially love the metaphor of the heart as a light and a guide and the final lines:
Closed or open … I get to decide.
Suggested for ages: 3-10 (and adults!)
10. Cuddle Time
Cuddle Time is a very simple story about two siblings waking up in the morning, playing together and then climbing into bed with mum and dad for snuggles and cuddles. The siblings could be boys or girls or one of each which is one of the beauties of this lovely book – all children can see themselves in it. I use this book to talk about one of the many ways we can show love to each other – by hugging and cuddling. When I ask children: how do you know your mum loves you? they often reply: because she cuddles me. This book is, sadly, out of print as I write this in 2023. But it’s a lovely book to look for at your local library.
Suggested for ages: 1-5 years
Suggested for ages: 3-7 years
Words and Your Heart is a simple text about the power of words to heal, to create, to destroy and to spread love. The illustrations are simple line drawings in black and white with touches of red and the message is positive and empowering for children. I really love the simplicity of this book, with its single, clear message and uncluttered illustrations. It’s an important message and I love that the book includes some examples of affirming things children – and all of us – can say to each other. In 2023 this book is unfortunately out of print but I was able to find a copy at my local library. Hopefully you will too.
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
We belong together because you needed a home and I had one to share. Now we are a family.
This is a great book to prompt conversations about love within families, how people show their love and know they are loved in return and about the fact that families are made in all sorts of different ways.
Suggested for ages: 2-5 years
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
How Do You Say I Love You? is a 2022 publication about all the different ways children say ‘I love you’ in their own languages in their own countries. This is a beautiful exploration of love and culture and a fantastic springboard for talking with young children about how things are different in different countries. Each double-page spread shows a child with his family or friends and in rhyming verse explores the way ‘I love you is said’ in the child’s language. The languages included are: French, Italian, Quechua (the indigenous language of Peru), Hausa (spoken in West and Central Africa), Spanish, Farsi, Tongan, Arabic, Filipino, Auslan, Mandarin, Greek and Korean. Given that the author of this book is Australian, I would have liked to have seen one of the Aboriginal languages included, however, the book is fantastic all the same.
Suggested for ages: 3-10 years
This is a lovely story to use as a prompt for discussing the love we have for our friends and how we express that love. It’s also a good introduction for discussions about friendship and how we can be friends with people and love them even when they’re very different from us.
Suggested for ages: 3-7 years
This is a great book for prompting discussions about how children can tune in to the feeling of being loved wherever they are and whoever they are with. They can access the reassurance and comfort of their parents love at school and when they’re alone at night. The book is also a lovely way to introduce the idea that all human beings are connected and that we are all here to help each other and love one another.
Suggested for ages: 3-7 years
When the Moon is a Smile is a book about a little girl and her father and the love they have for one another. The little girl’s parents don’t live together so she spends regular time with her dad and the book shows the fun they have together on one such visit. They do lots of things together and the little girl is sad when her father has to leave. When she wants to know when he’ll be back again, her father tells her about the different faces of the moon and shows her the way it looks like a smile. He tells her it will change and when it looks like a smile again he’ll be back to see her. So every night the little girl watches the moon and thinks about the next time she’ll see her dad.
While not obviously a Valentine’s day book for kids, this book is about love and relationships and how we show our love for one another. It’s a great book to share with children whose parents don’t live together but it’s also a lovely book to share with children who do live with their dad. It’s great for discussing the ways this father shows his love for his daughter by doing things with her, spending time with her, etc.
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
This is a lovely story to use as a springboard to discussing the love parents have for their children. It’s especially – but not only – good to share with a child who has been adopted or who is living with a foster family. For other children, it’s a great prompt for discussing the different ways people become families and the love parents have for their children no matter how they’ve come together.
Suggested for ages: 3-8 years
To be perfectly honest, The Day It Rained Hearts is not my favourite book. But the illustrations are charming and the children I’ve read it with really enjoy it which is why I’ve included it here.
It’s the story of Cornelia Augusta who, on the day it rains hearts, catches the hearts and uses them to make cards for her friends for Valentine’s Day. The hearts are all different and she takes time to find just the right heart for each friend. She posts the cards and we see her friends opening them. And it never rains hearts again.
This is a good book for discussing how we show love for our friends, not just by making them Valentine’s cards but by thinking about what they might like most, as Cornelia Augusta does when she makes her cards.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Felicity is a mum of three young adults and a primary school teacher in Sydney, Australia. Passionate about children's literacy and about the potential of books and reading for enriching young lives, she also creates and sells cute, clever book-ish gifts and gift baskets for little ones. Check out her Book Gift Baskets and Little Book Gifts.
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Have I missed one of your favourite Valentine’s Day books for kids?
I’d love to hear what you think so drop me a line in the comments.
I’m Felicity - a parent to three young humans and a primary school teacher who loves books.
I’m passionate about helping parents discover the joy of reading to their little ones and I love helping you discover quality picture books to share with the babies and small humans in your lives.
I also create gift baskets and Little Book Gifts filled with the very best books for children from newborns to four-year-olds. You can check them out here.
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