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.

Love Me, Love Me Not! A Charlie Brown Valentine by Charles M. Schulz and adapted by Natalie Shaw

Peppermint Patty is puzzled about the whole Valentine's Day thing.

"Have you received a lot of Valentine cards, Charlie Brown?" she asks.

"Not even one," Charlie Brown admits.

To a few happy-go-lucky souls, Valentine's Day simply means some silly cartoon cards with funny puns and perhaps some candy hearts and chocolate kisses.

But for most kids, Valentine's Day is fraught with excitement and anxiety. (Ask any elementary school teacher!)

For school kids, your heart is on your sleeve and your popularity is on the line, an easily quantifiable bit of data out there for anyone to see right on your desk.

For Charlie Brown, Valentine's Day offers yet another chance with the Little Red Haired Girl. He has a large and lovely Valentine and he is determined to deliver it to her himself.

"I'd give anything to talk to the Little Red-Haired Girl.

I know I'm the kind of person she would like!"

Marcie has a special Valentine for Charlie Brown. Sally pines for one from Linus, and Lucy dreams of a musical Valentine from Shroeder. Peppermint Patty will take whatever she can get. Everyone worries.

Snoopy and Marcie help C.B. practice sample conversations with the Little Red-Haired Girl. With his special card in hand, he walks to her house hoping to hand-deliver it to her, but when he gets there, his courage fails. Armed with a big red box of chocolates, he tries again, but again he chickens out. Forgetting even to sign his name as he drops it in a nearby mailbox. Rats!

Charlie Brown pins his hopes on the neighborhood Valentine dance. Will he at last be brave enough to speak to her?

"She's waiting for you to ask her to dance," Linus says.

But it's Love's Labour Lost for the last dance with the Little Red-Haired Girl, in this newest edition of Charles Schulz' classic, A Charlie Brown Valentine (Peanuts). Faint heart ne'er won fair maid, But Charlie Brown's heart is true and his hopes spring eternal, even though he has to make do with a big SMAK from Snoopy in the mailbox in that classic comic closing.

"But there's always next year!"

Stranger Danger? Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! by Doreen Cronin

IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY ON THE FARM.

But for the head honcho, Farmer Brown, it's first things first. His wheelbarrow, shovel, fork, and hay bales await him early in the morning, keeping the pigs clean (as if!) and the donkey happy. And to keep everyone safe from marauding foxes, he mends the fences.

Farmer Brown does his work, while Little Duck takes charge of the party planning:

SHE TIED BALLOONS TO ... EVERYTHING! SHE HUNG STREAMERS TO... EVERYTHING!

And it's heavy on the paint, glitter and glue with piles of Valentines for everyone on the farm. Little Duck looks like a walking Valentine herself, with paint and glitter all over. But soon Farmer Brown's work and the festive preparations are done, and it's time to PAR-TY!

Little Duck, the hostess with the mostest, meets the guests at the door with Valentines for everyone. Someone cranks up some hoedown music, while the fashionably late sheep head straight for the chips and salsa. The pigs do the porcine polka and the poultry begin to boogie down doin' that chicken dance. Even the barn mice do the hustle. Then the cows show up, bringing a banner touting their alternative shindig.

JOIN US AT THE SECOND ANNUAL DIVINE BOVINE BALL.
FORMAL ATTIRE, PLEASE!

Everybody is busy doin' their own thing. The party is cookin' and rustic fiddle music floats out of the barn and across the starry fields.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE, AT THE TOP OF THE HILL, LITTLE FOX HEARD THE MUSIC. SHE CALLED: YIP, YIP, YIP!

NOBODY ANSWERED. BUT THERE WAS A TRAIL OF VALENTINES TO FOLLOW.

Now, the guests don't exactly welcome a party-crashing fox, not even one with a Valentine trailing from her tail. The chickens freeze in mid-flap. The pigs' trotters stop in their tracks. The sheep cease in mid-munch. And all the mice hustle for their holes, hoping not to become fox hors 'd'oeuvres.

It's an awkward fox-in-the-hen-house moment.

But Little Duck has one handmade Valentine left, and as she graciously hands it to Little Fox with a warm welcome, the party returns to full swing, with everyone trying out the fox trot!

EVERYBODY DANCES WITH EVERYBODY UNTIL...

THE COWS CAME HOME!

It's quite a mixer at the Valentine's Day dance down on the farm, in Doreen Cronin's newest in her beloved bucolic series, Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! (A Click, Clack Book) (Atheneum, 2017). Cronin's sweet story welcomes the spirit of St. Valentine's Day with warmth and humor, and Betsy Lewin's rustic watercolor illustrations of farm critters making merry are as cute and charming as ever. School Library Journal says, "The economical text maximizes impact while giving the illustrations plenty of space to tell the story," and Publishers Weekly adds, "Cronin subtly passes along some sage advice: the best parties have an element of the unexpected."

Cronin and Lewin are, of course, the creators of the top-selling series which began with Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (A Click, Clack Book) (read reviews here.)