Hearty Handicrafts! Curious George Makes a Valentine adapted by Bethany V. Freites

Curious George loves mornings.

Mornings that smell like waffles are the best!

The man with the yellow hat has some special, heart-shaped waffles waiting for George's breakfast. It's Valentine's Day, he explains to George, the day when we send cards to our friends to show how we care about them. George thinks heart-y waffles are a good way to care.

And the man has something else for George--a card with a big, red heart right in the middle, with his name on it. How nice it is!

George is curious. Can he make a Valentine's card with a red heart for the man? Yes, he can. He traces the heart and makes the man a special card. This is fun! Now George has an idea. Can he make cards for his other friends? But first he has to figure out the heart shape. George experiments with his foam blocks and discovers that the familiar heart shape can be made with two triangles and two half-circles. How COOL is that?

But how can he make enough cards for his friends today? George is curious.

He has an idea. With his red paints and his foam heart stamp, he can print out more red hearts. But George is a little monkey, and monkeys are impatient. Can he find a way to print many heart cards fast? He is going to have to come up with some sort of stamping machine.

Gluing the stamper to the bottom of his pogo stick mostly splashes paint. George cleans up and tries out his trike wheel and gets--a paper jam. Then he remembers how the waffle iron works. Can he adapt it to make a Valentine stamper?

It's mass production for our curious little monkey, in Curious George Makes a Valentine (CGTV reader) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), adapted from the award-winning PBS program and from H.A. Rey's original character. This Level 2 Green Light reader is a holiday story that is a veritabl art and STEM lesson as well as independent reading practice, as George learns about shapes and invents the printing press to boot--all to please his friends on Valentine's Day. And in case parents are leery of real red paint, the publisher offers an alternative--Valentine stickers which youngsters can use to embellish their own Valentines. What's not to like in this clever and inexpensive Curious George story?

What Will Your Story Be? Curious YOU! On Your Way by Kathleen Zochfeld and H.A. Rey

YOU HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH.

WHAT WILL COME NEXT?

This time of year is full of happy endings and new beginnings--whether it is graduating from preschool, from primary school, or even from college. And Kathleen Zochfeld's Curious You: On Your Way! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) is a way to celebrate those big transitions with a look back and a look forward. Using the classic illustrations of H.A. Rey's original Curious George picture books, we see that sometimes naughty, but always curious little monkey in his high points (as window washer on a skyscraper and the star of the movie about the first monkey in space in Curious George Takes a Job.

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE NEW HEIGHTS TO REACH!

On the other hand, any successful hero will have times when he'll need to hang on and maybe get a little help from his friends, as does George in Curious George Flies a Kite:

SO MUCH TO TRY!

There are a few crashes and falls, from time to time, but if you keep your curiosity and find your own style, the sky is the limit.

WHAT WILL YOUR STORY BE?

Curious You: On Your Way! offers a pat on the back and proud best wishes to a young graduate or anyone making a transition to a new place, a way to look back and a way to look into the future.