With charming illustrations and memorable characters, Valentine children’s picture books are sure to captivate children’s imaginations and make this special day even more meaningful.
Looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day book to read with your children or to give as a gift?
Be sure to check out our other book lists for kids!
You can find these Valentine Children’s Picture books at your local library or purchase through the affiliate links provided for your convenience.
20 Sweet, Loving, Saucy and Downright Outrageous Valentine’s Day Books
Valentine’s Day is a special day for showing love and appreciation to the people we care about.
Children can also celebrate this holiday by reading some heartwarming and fun picture books.
From silly stories to touching tales, there are many books available that can teach children about the joys of Valentine’s Day.
VALENTINE CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS
Valentine and her pet cockatoo live in a cottage with heart-shaped trees outside.
During the countdown to Valentine’s Day, they make glittery cards, bake heart-shaped cookies and cakes, and prepare goody bags tied up with red bows.
But what happens when they sleep through Valentine’s Day?
Join little Bunny Gray as he sets out to find the perfect gift for his special friend, Rosie.
In the grass, under the leaves and on the glistening stream he thinks he spies beautiful, shimmery jewels but is disappointed to find that they’re only sunbeams, dew drops and berries.
In the end little Bunny Gray discovers that the gift of love is more precious than a jewel could ever be.
This new tale — written by Little Bear’s creator, Else Holmelund Minarik, and with full-color illustrations by Heather Green — will bring readers into the charmed world of Little Bear, complete with good friends Hen, Emily, Owl, and Duck, and Little Bear’s loving family.
Gilbert writes not-so-nice Valentine poems for two rude classmates and signs their names to the cards.
Since Margaret and Lewis both receive two Valentines from each other -one good and one bad – and none from Gilbert, his ploy is discovered and all the students ostracize him.
The dilemma is resolved when all three apologize and Gilbert writes them new poems and shares his homemade cookies.
It’s Valentine’s Day and Ruby won’t let anything spoil the celebration!
In this follow-up to the popular Love, Ruby Valentine, Ruby’s favorite day of the year rolls around again, and she and Lovebird work feverishly to plan the perfect party for everyone in Heartland.
But when Valentine’s Day arrives, an unexpected snowstorm threatens to ruin all of Ruby’s plans.
A creative and sweet story, perfect for Valentine's Day, that helps open the hearts of young readers. From the beloved illustrator of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
One day it rains hearts, and Cornelia Augusta catches them.
She realizes that the hearts are perfect for making valentines.
Each heart is special in its own way, and Cornelia Augusta knows exactly who to send them to: her animal friends.
As Valentine’s Day gets closer, Jackson has a hard time keeping his crush on Cami a secret.
His chocolate hearts end up next to her lunch and he can’t hide his red face when the huge Valentine he made for her lands on her desk.
Cooper thinks Jackson should just talk to her, but Jackson’s afraid she doesn’t like him.
Mystery is in the air when Nancy receives a valentine from a secret someone.
Join Nancy as she follows the clues to find out who it is — all in her trademark fabulous style, of course.
Gorgeous stickers included!
It’s Valentine’s Day and Splat has a special valentine for a certain someone in his class.
Her name is Kitten, and Splat likes her even more than fish sticks and ice cream.
But Kitten doesn’t seem to like him at all.
Will Splat’s heartfelt valentine win Kitten’s paw in the end?
Love really is blind in this hilarious and pitch-perfect Valentine’s Day picture book, set to the familiar rhythms of “Clementine,” one of our most beloved American folk songs.
Alison Jackson, author of the Thanksgiving favorite I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, cleverly replaces the heroine of “Clementine” with a dreamy girl named Valentine who keeps missing what’s right in front of her nose: the love letters being sent her way by a smitten admirer.
Love is patient, and love is kind, but for Hedgehug love is prickly, too.
Join this lonely hedgehog as he searches for someone to accept his heart.
If You’ll Be My Valentine sweetly celebrates the true meaning of Valentine’s Day.
Charming prose and captivatingly sweet art create an adorable tableau of loving wishes from one little boy to all the members of his family.
Everybody knows what Valentine’s Day means: Red and pink hearts, flowers and chocolates, and cards and letters with sweet sayings written on them.
But why? Who was St. Valentine, anyway?
It’s Valentine’s Day and the 10 little neighbors in this book are busy making Valentines for their closest friends.
Will everyone get a Valentine at the big Valentine’s Day party?
You can count on it!
With its fun counting element, bouncy text and adorable illustrations, this book is the perfect gift for young lovebugs.
This little love story proves that a kiss is not just a kiss.
It is a bountiful fount of surprises, spreading love far and wide and growing sweeter as it goes!
What better message to give someone you love than one of such joy and happy affection?
Little Miss planted a kiss.
One small act of love blooms into something bigger and more dazzling than Little Miss could have ever imagined in this epic journey about life, kindness, and giving.
Pinkalicious loves Valentine’s Day!
Everyone in her class is assigned to make an extra-special Valentine’s Day card for one person in the class.
Pinkalicious creates a magnificently pinkerrific card.
Will the valentine that she gets in return measure up?
It’s Valentine’s Day, and Splat and his friends want to give Mrs. Wimpydimple something special.
Lift the flaps to find out what — and reveal hidden holiday surprises!
Baby made a valentine for Mommy.
Where could it be?
It’s a shiny, glittering delight as you lift the sturdy flaps to help Baby find her very special valentine.
How many kisses does a tired baby need before they say goodnight?
Find out in this adorable kiss-and-count concept book from Karen Katz!
Count and kiss along with this lift-the-flap bedtime book, from children’s book legend, Karen Katz!
One wintry day, a postman delivers a mysterious package with a big pink bow to a lonely man named Mr. Hatch.
After some time, Mr. Hatch discovers just who his secret admirer is and, in doing so, enjoys the biggest surprise of his life!
Here is a hilarious take on the holiday that boys love to hate, the most complex holiday of them all. Saying "I love you" has never been so yucky or so sweet.
Even boys will fall in love with this valentine!Leon has a crush. A let-her-cut-in-line-at-the-water-fountain kind of crush. And he's got the perfect valentine.
But this valentine has no intention of getting caught up in any romantic conspiracy.
"Love is yucky, kid! Valentine's Day is all about CANDY!" the card yells at Leon, before leaping out the window and running away, leaving Leon to chase it across town, collecting interested kids along the way.
School is always exciting for Amelia Bedelia, and getting her first Valentine's Day card may be the most exciting surprise of all.
What will she do when she forgets her valentines for her classmates on the bus? Luckily, Amelia Bedelia is resourceful, and she doesn't break any hearts.
A lovely pick for Valentine's Day — or any day — Amelia Bedelia's First Valentine will have readers making room in their hearts for this charmingly literal little girl.
It's the sweetest holiday of the year! Celebrate love and Valentine's Day with card-making, tasty treats, and more in this installment of Natasha Wing's best-selling series.
Join in on all of the colorful fun, and then come along to school the next morning for a day of parties and games!
Keep the Valentine fun going with these educational activities (contains affiliate links):
We’ve read some of these, but you have quite a few on this list that we haven’t! I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of most Valentine’s books (not sure why), so I’m anxious to try these! Thanks!
Some Valentine books can be so sappy, it drives me nuts. And my boys are not big fans of sappy. Let me know which ones you try and what you thought of them! I love feedback.
I didn’t know until I started teaching several years ago that Valentine’s Day is actually my FAVORITE HOLIDAY! I can’t wait to see if my only local English book store here in Seoul has some of these books for me to read to my kiddies. Thanks for the list Jenny.
I love Valentine’s Day too. I think kids bring a new level to the holiday — just a holiday about love and friendship and family 🙂 I really hope you’re local English bookstore can help you out. It must be tough to get some of your favorites in Seoul. Also, if you have an e-reader, many of these are available in e-book format. Let me know how your search goes.
We love Valentine’s books. I have seen my children were little! My 10 and 8 year old are rapidly thinking they aren’t cool anymore, but my 6 year old loves to read them.
We love Valentine’s book in our house, too! Even the boys. But they do love the sillier ones. However, they are in love with Ruby Valentine – a true classic.
Great list of books. My daughter loves the Pinkalicious book.
Thanks for the feedback! My boys even love Ruby Valentine. I highly recommend getting it if you’re daughter loves Pinkalicious.
This is such a great list! There’s definitely some classics on it. The Kid Lit Blog Hop starts tonight at midnight and I’d love for you to link in this great post. Hope to see you there! 🙂
I will definitely link in. Thanks!
This is a wonderful list you have put together. Thank you
So glad you like the list. Let me know which ones are your favorite 🙂
Thanks I need to grab one for a secret reader for my kids school. Now I have some ideas.
Glad I gave you some great ideas. There are so many silly books out there based on TV characters, that it can be hard to know what the good Valentine books out there are.
Glad to hear I gave you some ideas 🙂
Thanks for the great list. I love Karen Katz’s books. I have a few Valentine’s book but I;’ll have t look for these. Found you through the No Rules weekend blog party. Following you.
Yes, the Karen Katz books are cute. And the one I listed we read all year long.
My little guys have some of these books and they love them! This is a great list of children V-day books 🙂
Thanks! We read so much in our house that our favorites are easy to pick out 🙂
These all look like great books. I have a Valentines day book list I’m working on too but with all different books. It’s nice to know there are so many good ones out there! Have a great weekend. I am running a “Weekend Wind-Down” link party on my blog and would love it if you have time to come over and link up your post! 🙂 Have a great weekend!