Lilly's Chocolate Heart

Mouse Books

by Kevin Henkes

Lilly loves her chocolate heart. Will she save it? Forever and ever? What do you think? This sweet and simple board book for the youngest readers features Lilly, star of the Kevin Henkes classic Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. The charming board books featuring favorite preschool characters from Kevin Henkes All five are also available together in a A Box of Treats.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Holiday, Fiction, Food, Animals, Kids

24 pages, Board book

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

Kevin Henkes is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. As an illustrator he won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon (2004). Two of his books were Newbery Medal Honor Books, Olive's Ocean in 2004 and The Year of Billy Miller in 2014. His picture book Waiting was named both a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and a Geisel Honor Book. It was only the second time any author has won that combination of awards.

Reviews

[Rod Brown]

I recently indexed a bunch of Kevin Henkes books and realized this is the only one in his Mouse series that I hadn't read. Fixed!

Lilly tries to find the best place to stash her last piece of Valentine's chocolate. After a careful search, she finds the best and funniest solution.

Cute!

[Laurie]

My just-about-to-turn-six year old little girl (and fellow chocaholic) adores this book. We've read it so many times together that she knows each page by heart.

Lilly is a cute little mouse who decides to save her last Valentine's Day chocolate heart. But where shall she put it? Where will it remain safe and clean? She searches throughout her home but nothing will do. It's far too dusty under the bed, the picture frames are too narrow (the heart will surely fall off & get lost!), the bookshelves are too crammed with books. Finally, Lilly decides the best place to keep the heart safe is inside her belly. When she's finished enjoying her last treat she wonders aloud when Valentine's Day will come around again.

This is an adorable little hardback filled with charming drawings of Lilly's pastel world. I disagree that the packaging will turn off older kids. The light colored palette and lively drawings are exactly what attracted my daughter (well, that and the chocolate heart!). Boy's, however, will probably steer clear of this one ~ I know my son runs when we pull this one out :)

[Peter]

short and sweet.

[Pamela Hatch]

Lilly in crown and fuzzy slippers has one valentine candy heart left - but what to do with it? Save it in a perfect place, but nothing seemed to be just right. In the end she finds the perfect place but you will need to read it for yourself to find out where.

Illustrations are true to Henkes' lovable style and will be a hit with young readers.

ACTIVITY: have a red heart, either paper or chocolate, and play hide and seek. Either have hid before read story, or challenge reader to find perfect hiding place afterwards.

Best line in the book -- "Lilly wanted to find the perfect place to keep the heart."

[Ann]

Lilly is looking for the perfect place to put her chocolate heart. I am pairing this book with another book about prepositions. The students and I will act out the prepositional phrases in the book with our own chocolate heart. Then they can choose to do what Lilly does at the end of the book or they can make up another ending for their heart.

[Lynda]

Vivacious Lily has one chocolate heart left and tries to find a safe place to keep it until she finally decides it would be best in her stomach. Simple and cute, a good book for toddlers but not enough for preschoolers.

[Emily Carlyn]

This was actually a very cute story! I was afraid that it being a Lilly story, it would be long, but it isn't at all. It would be a cute read aloud one on one to see if the child can guess what Lilly will do with her chocolate heart.

[Danette]

6/18/18 Read with Naomi, Julia, & Simon

[Maeve]

After Valentine's Day, Lilly has a chocolate heart wrapped in foil that she wants to put in a special place. But every place she finds doesn't quite work, then she finds the perfect spot...her tummy!

[Laurie]

Toddler loves it. Good way to work on positional words around Valentine's Day.

[Sarah Niemi]

Lilly's Chocolate Heart is a short book that follows the story of Lilly trying to figure out where she can put her chocolate heart. This a book for young elementary school students.

[Meredith]

Lily searches for a place to put her last piece of Valentine candy.

The ending accurately captures the children and holiday candy.

[Kim Hampton]

Cute story!

[Megan Gery]

Super cute and simple, and it kept R (24 months) engaged the whole time, which is impressive as she rarely sits still for a whole book these days.

[Cheryl]

Aw. Points for trying and being careful! But learn a lesson from Wemberly... she's a role model for us all.

[Anna]

Lilly's Chocolate Heart is another cute, short mouse story with a little twist. The story's sort of the inverse of Owen's Marshmallow Chick.

[Adele]

Predictable, but fun and cute.

[Antoinette Evans]

Chocolate is the one thing that I absolutely loved about Kevin Henkes's Lilly's Chocolate Heart. Chocolate lovers can wholly relate to Lilly's attempts at saving her last Valentine's Day chocolate for later. Lilly, as many others, worries whether her chocolate is safe from choco-predators and dirt alike. Young readers can relate to Lilly's endearing love for chocolate and sweets, while older readers will enjoy Lilly's cute attempts at desperately saving her chocolate. This entertaining story is suitable for either reading at home with parents to at school. Students can use this story for reflecting upon their own favorite candies or food. In addition, this story is an excellent example of someone going to humorous lengths to save something so ordinary. Children will enjoy Lilly's silly attempts at hiding her chocolate. Kevin Henkes hits a home run with Lilly's Chocolate Heart, enticing young and older readers alike with his character's personalities and humor.

[Melissa Mckee]

This story is about a mouse, Lilly, that has one red chocolate heart left at the end of Valentine’s Day. She ponders what to do with the chocolate heart but eventually decides to eat it. This book contains illustrations that open the readers mind to imagination. The reader is given the opportunity to use their imagination in correlating the mouse with a person and the task at hand. This book has a cheerful demeanor that invites the children to identify with the circumstance at hand. The book efficiently exemplifies the significance of using thought progression to overcome an obstacle. I am under the impression that this book is aimed towards preschool because it teaches children to use different deliberation strategies to complete a task.

[June]

A perfect book for a Valentine toddler program. (Lilly is always adorable.) 2/8/12

Too long for my Lap Time this year. Now it is mostly babes in arms. Next year if I still have all babies I will switch it out for All Kinds of Kisses. 2/13/13

Had some older toddlers and this worked okay for Lap Time. All Kinds of Kisses didn't arrive until after the program.

Used for Lap Time and went over okay.

[jacky]

This is a cute series by Kevin Henkes; for several holidays, there is a book based around an appropriate treat. This one is about a chocolate heart and it clearly states its about Valentine's Day. What is fun about the stories is that even though they each feature the treat, they are not cookie cutter. Each one has a unique story with developed characters from Henkes picture books. Lilly is in a few books by Henkes, but Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Julius Baby of the World are the ones we've read. I found Lilly's personality intact.

[Kirsten Mellin]

Eh... I thought this book was okay. I enjoyed that she was trying to find the perfect spot for the chocolate, and I would have chosen the same spot in the end. :-) I also think it is an interesting way to explain how something may not fit because the place is "too dusty... too messy... too warm... etc." However, this story really didn't catch or even keep my attention for too long let alone my younger children. Even though it really speaks to me (chocolate wise)... I wouldn't add this book to our collection permanently.

[Rosa Cline]

This was an adorable "Lilly" book. It's nearly bedtime on Valentine's Day and she has one chocolate heart left and she wants to save it forever. So she looks for the perfect place for it... but can't figure out 'where'... until she feels her tummy is perfect... My 4 year old granddaughter and I both enjoyed this as I read it to her. She even took it after and 'read' it.

[Terry]

Borrow this one. As sweet as it is--and it's a nice gift-- its topic limits the fun to February. See why it is a 'must read' even though it is a Valentine's book.

[Josiah]

I would give one and a half stars to Lilly's Chocolate Heart. The simple humor of Kevin Henkes sparkles very nicely in the creation of this tiny booklet that would be perfect for a toddler (or even one older than a toddler!) on Valentine's Day! :-)

[Gabriele]

This is a really cute, and short board book that's great for leading into Valentine's Day. She's trying to find where to put her chocolate to keep it safe...Her solution is my favorite solution too :)

[Kaethe]

Cute enough, but not the candy-loving story of my heart, which is Max's Chocolate Chicken.

Library copy.

[Tiff]

Henkes is always brilliant. In this book, Lilly is trying to find a place for her chocolate heart. She ends up eating it. Kinda silly, kinda cute, good for babies and toddlers read-aloud. Children loved its silliness hands-down!

[Dolly]

Cute board book, with the same character, Lilly, from the book, "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse." Fun illustrations and a storyline similar to "Squirrel is Hungry" by Satoshi Kitamura.

[jenna Hudrlik]

short and sweet