Lovebirds: Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon

ONE DAY PENGUIN WAS LOOKING FOR LOVE.

"WHAT'S THIS?"

INSTEAD, HE FOUND ... A MITTEN!

Even penguins know that where there is one mitten, there were once two. And he sets out to find the owner of the other mitten. After all, it's lonely on his ice floe, and he could use a penguin partner.

But unbeknownst to Penguin, there are a couple of Cupids at work in this story, a couple of knitting puffins busy bringing him together with his true love if he is faithful to the quest, following their trail of yarn that extends across the empty spaces of Antarctica. First, he runs into his knitting puffin friend, Bootsy, knitting nose cozies for sea lions.

Penguin is taken with idea of knitting a mate for the mystery mitten, but as he waddles on, knitting as he goes across the frozen seascape, he meet up with other creatures in need of a warm up.

"H-H-HELLO! A-A-ARE YOU KNITTING BILL COZIES? I D-D-DROPPED MINE!"

Several puffins are happy to take all the knitted goods Penguin can provide as bill cozies, and as he trudges on, he finds lots of chilly polar takers for snout cozies, but not the one he wants, the owner of the mate for his mitten. Will Penguin find the object of his soul mate search at the end of that mysterious trail of yarn, the one with the mate for his talisman mitten?

Well, of course, and there's a whale in a handknit sweater to take them off on the next adventure in Salina Yoon's latest, Penguin in Love (Walker, 2013).  Yoon is the princess of penguin stories, and this little search for true love makes heartwarming seasonal storytime fare.  Yoon's illustrations are quite whimsical (one might even say cute), and even her endpapers make the most of the graphic charms of knitting supplies in this appealing yarn for Valentine's Day.

Salina Yoon's other popular penguin tales are Penguin and Pinecone and Penguin on Vacation.

Now Entering Cutesville: Love Monster by Rachel Bright

THIS IS MONSTER.

I THINK YOU WILL AGREE HE'S A BIT FUNNY-LOOKING, TO SAY THE LEAST.

It's not hard to see why this hairy little red monster is feeling blue. Somehow he's wandered into a place where he is obviously the odd one out. The sign at the edge of town tells it all.

WELCOME TO CUTESVILLE
***Home of the Fluffy***

Although the lavender heart on his sleeve proclaims that Monster's lookin' for love, this town looks like all the wrong places. Everything is pink or violet, and everyone is fluffy!  Monster is red and... yuk! HAIRY! With his bulgy eyes and visible fangs, Monster realizes that this town's idea of cute is just not in the cards for him

Still he doesn't give up his search to find someone like him to love him.

HE LOOKED HIGH... AND  LOW.  HE LOOKED MIDDLE-ISH.

For a moment he thinks he's spotted a soul mate--someone similarly hirsute, but it turns out to be his own reflection.  Then it begins to rain, looking dark and scary. Monster's search is clearly NOT going well!

But in Rachel Bright's brand-new Love Monster (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2013), there is at least one other hairy monster in the BIG WIDE WORLD, and Monster finds out that there are sweet surprises out there when "love finds you."  Bright's little Monster may not be fluffy, but in illustrator Bright's distinctive artwork, he is quite cute enough for Cutesville.   This is a heartfelt story of finding your place in the world with a theme that kids will get right away.  Publishers Weekly says, "Bright has a brisk but sympathetic voice that’s appealingly British, and her visual pacing is impeccable."