Star-Crossed! Happy Valentine's Day, Charlie Brown! by Charles M. Schulz

Each February Charlie Brown made Valentines for all his friends, plus a special one for the Little Red-Haired Girl.

This year Charlie Brown is determined to deliver it.

Poor Charlie Brown. He's carried a torch for the Little Red-Haired Girl for years, but sadly she doesn't know he exists. He's made and bought her fancy Valentine cards, but he's always been too shy to follow through and actually give one to her. But this year is going to be different. He's poured out his heart in a poignant poem.

Your hair is red and full of curls.
You're sweeter than the other girls.
You make me want to laugh and cry.
I wish that I could be your guy.

Charlie Brown's friends all have someone in mind for their special Valentines. Sally has her eye on Linus. Lucy loves Shroeder. And the word on the street is that Snoopy is having a Valentine's Day party--and everyone already knows about it but Charlie Brown.

"My own dog is having a party and he didn't invite me! Why would the Little Red-Haired Girl want a Valentine from me?"

Charlie Brown repairs to Lucy's Psychiatric Help booth, where Lucy's advice is along the line of "Faint heart never won fair lady." He screws up his courage and heads straight for the house of the Little Red-Haired Girl. Will this be the year he actually rings her doorbell? Will this Valentine's Day be THE DAY, or will C.B's love's labour be lost yet again? Good grief!

Schulz's story of the reluctant suitor is retold in Simon Spotlight's Ready to Read Level 2 Happy Valentine's Day, Charlie Brown! (Peanuts). Charlie Brown may falter, but beginning readers, with perhaps a first crush learn that the course of true love does not run smooth, as Shakespeare warned, and for young Valentine's Day fanciers, there is the consolation of plenty of Valentine stickers to seal their own Valentines--whether they have the courage to deliver them or not! Although Charlie Brown and company are no longer available in the daily newspaper comic strip, Simon's early reader series give the current crop of youngsters a chance to get to know Peanuts gang.