Some Enchanted Evening! Mouse and Mole: Secret Valentine by Wong Herbert Yee

Mouse traced a heart on the frosted windowpane.

"Valentine's Day is coming!" she squeaked.

Just thinking about it warmed Mouse from ear to tail.

Mouse gets busy making a list of the friends she and Mole plan to make Valentines for.

"Silly me," she giggled. I left out my best friend!"

Mouse adds Mole to the list and gets butterflies inside when she looks at his name.

Mouse heads down to Mole's house and he teaches her how to make cutout Valentines with sparkly glitter messages for all their friends. Mouse thanks Mole, saying that he is smart and clever.

Mole blushed a Valentine red.

Clearly, the hearts of Mole and Mouse are both filled with special pitty-pats when they think of each other. This Valentine's Day has got to be something special.

On Valentine's morning, Mole finds a Valentine from Mouse addressed to her BFF, with XOXOs and lots of red hearts. Mole gets that fluttering butterflies feeling, too.

Later that morning, together they tiptoe up to their friends' doors to deliver their handmade cards. They agree to meet later for lunch at the diner. But when Mouse arrives back home, she finds a mysterious Valentine under her door.

I am NUTS about YOU! it reads.

Is Squirrel the sender of that nutty valentine? Is he her secret admirer? At the diner, Mouse receives another mystery Valentine brought to the table she and Mole share. It's a thick piece of heart-shaped cheese which says.

BE MY CINDERELLA?
FROM YOUR MOZZAFELLA!

XOXO

Now it's Mouse's turn to blush a Valentine red. Mole seems to be too busy eating his fried worms to notice the sign behind his head:

TAKE A CHANCE!
TO THE DANCE!

And when Mouse gets back to her house, she finds roses and chocolates waiting for her with another message that makes her heart thump!

Meet me at four
On the dance floor.
--Your Secret Valentine--XOXO

Will Mouse meet her mysterious secret admirer across a crowded room? (And what should she wear?)

It's a perfect Valentine's Day surprise, in Wong Herbert Yee's Mouse and Mole: Secret Valentine (A Mouse and Mole Story) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Author-illustrator Wong Herbert Yee's popular Level 3 beginning reader series is just right for primary students who may be hoping for a special Valentine on the big day, and his charming wintry illustrations make this a seasonal holiday story that has it all, the fun of choosing the right Valentines, the excitement of getting one from a special person, and the discovery that the admiration is mutual, all right down to a special addendum with all the steps to craft Mole's special Valentine's Day cards.

Share this secret Valentine experience with Diane de Groat's Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink, or for a wintry mix of Mouse and Mole tales read Wong Herbert Yee's Mouse and Mole, A Winter Wonderland (A Mouse and Mole Story) (see review here).