Great Expectations! Pinkalicious: Pink of Hearts by Victoria Kann

At the party I had fun eating heart-shaped cookies, but I couldn't stop thinking about the secret valentine exchange. I knew that somewhere in the art room was a one-of-a-kind valentine with my name on it.

Pinkalicious gets lucky. In the drawing for Valentine partners, she draws her best friend Alison. The Princess of Pink is feeling "in the pink" as she and little brother Peter design a special Valentine for Allison--a BIG pink heart, with lace and beautiful designs surrounding a smaller lace-encased pink heart. Pinkie prints her message, "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, ALISON!" She adds plenty of glitter and even a spritz of pink perfume to her proud creation:

"PINKTURESQUE~" said Mommy.

"VALENTINALICIOUS!" said Daddy.

"Yuck!" said Peter, surveying the mess. "It looks like a PINK-STY in here!"

Allison is truly pleased with her elaborate Valentine. But then she hands Pinkalicious a plain-Jane envelope with a simple pink crayoned heart on a ripped-out piece of notebook paper inside.

It is not exactly what Pinkie expected. It looks like Allison spent about half a minute on this Valentine for her. Does this minimalist Valentine mean Allison isn't her best friend anymore?

But as Pinkalicious carelessly drops the stripped-down Valentine on the floor, she notices something more inside.

It was a poem that Allison had written for me.

In Victoria Kann's frothy Valentine's Day easy reading story, Pinkalicious: Pink of Hearts (HarperFestival, 2011), Pinkie gets the message: people are creative in different ways, and Allison has used her unique talent to prepare a special Valentine just for her that shows that she is a good friend indeed. With a bonus of eight sturdy tear-out Valentines and a slew of stickers with which to personalize them on board, this pinkanista paperback is a complete Valentine's bundle inside its covers, but one with a nice message about the different ways of being a friend.

Pair this one with Kann's recent Pinkalicious: The Princess of Pink Slumber Party (I Can Read Book 1) for a perfectly pink holiday party, or, even better, to probe the meaning of primary-grade friendship a little deeper, pair it with Diane deGroat's insightful holiday favorite, Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink.