Rhyme Time Valentine

by Nancy Poydar

When a fierce gust of wind blows away her bag of unique valentines, Ruby must find a way to save Valentine's Day, in a lively picture book that features instructions for making valentines.

Genres: Picture Books, School, Childrens, Storytime, Holiday, Poetry

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the diversity in this book. That is nice. It reminds me of the school the kids go to. I don't really feel the story was well executed. The ending was a surprise to me that was a nice touch. Some of her Rhymes are cute but most of them were not good enough to impress.

I related to the fact that Ruby loves red - YEAH red. I didn't get much reaction from the kids either way here. They listened and I couldn't tell how they felt.

I don't feel this is the best Valentine's book out there.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruby loves Valentine's Day...she works and works on special cards to give all her classmates. But, when she walks to school on Valentine's Day, the cards all blow away. Ruby is sad and grumpy, until her cards find a way to brighten lots of people's day.

Used for "Hearts-A-Beating" storytime-February, 2010.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unusual story about Valentine's Day. Ruby makes special Valentines with poems on them for her classmates, but they blew away in the wind. She makes several attempts to replace the cards, but is unhappy with each one. In the end, she is happy with her choice to pass out candy hearts to her classmates and she discovers that the Valentines she originally made found their way to others.

The illustrations are colorful and fun and the little poems are fun to read aloud. Several of them have words covered up and our girls had fun filling in the missing words, based on the rhyme. The narrative is interesting, although our girls insisted that they would not have given up so easily on her homemade Valentines. We enjoyed reading this story together.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My five-year-old son picked this book out from the library last week. Since Valentine's Day is coming up quickly, I thought it was a good choice.

First of all, I'm happy to see another Valentine book. There aren't too many out there for children. Second, the illustrations are quite adorable; Ruby looks very personable. The basic story is good, but it is a bit flawed in the telling. The text style jumps around quite a bit, making it feel choppy and disjointed, and making it challenging to read out loud. And the story ended abruptly, making me feel like something was missing. This book could have been better if the editing had been stronger.


Actual rating: 3.5 stars, but I round up.

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not great.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not as well received with my children. While it's intentions were to teach rhyming it didn't flow well and quickly lost the children's attention.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was excruciating to read out loud. It had a bunch of random, crappy rhymes interspersed in the boring text.

[Celia Buell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruby is so excited for Valentine's Day. She's been spending all her free time hand-making them for her classmates. She plans to wear all red, and boasts that she even has a red name. But on the big day, all of her Valentines blow away on her way to school.

I like this one because it looks like a lot of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms I've seen during practicums. The conversations and activities are very recognizable, and I hope kids can make connections with this one. The diverse illustrations are also a plus.

I like the way the rhymes are worked in throughout the story. This would be a good Valentines Day book to help enforce rhyme activities with students. I especially like how into rhymes Ruby is, because that's something that speaks to a lot of kids as well.

Practically, I do have some issues with this book. If Ruby made all her Valentines at school, why did she have to transport them back and forth? And even if she did, couldn't she have put them in her backpack instead of carrying them haphazardly? I understand that all of this was for the story's sake, but in real life I can see a lot of ways the situation in this book could have been avoided. However, I do like the reappearance of the lost cards at the end.

Overall I think this is a sweet Valentines Day book with a lot of things that young kids can get into, and it has an added bonus of reinforcing academic benefits with the emphasis on rhyme patterns and creating rhymes.

*Read for: Children's Book group (Picture Book Club) - February 2023 Holidays Scavenger Hunt - Valentines Day

[Alyssa Galip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruby loves valentines day. I liked that when her valentines blew away she came up with another good idea by giving the other students heart shaped candies her parents gave her. It was a good book and I would recommend it.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The diversity here was stellar, and I appreciated seeing a male elementary teacher. Ruby was a nice enough character, but the story itself was bland and a little boring. This one just didn't resonate with me.

Content Advisory: use of "dumb" in reference to inanimate object

[Madison LibraryBookFamily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruby loves Valentines. She excitedly prepares homemade cards with rhymes for her classmates only to lose them to a rogue wind. Can she find her Valentine’s spirit before the day is done?
Simple rhymes, problem solving, and BIPOC characters improve this book. My younger elementary kids enjoyed it.

[Virginia, Second of Her Name, Mother of Bunnies · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet book about Valentine's Day cards.

[Tracy 5redhens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book book for its diversity, as well as Ruby’s good attitude and problem solving. Very cute!

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

openlibrary.org

I'm guessing that kids and busy teachers like this more than I did, reading too carefully and expecting too much. I do very much like what happened to the valentines at the end.

[The Book Box]

Mama read this to me and my brother last night. We loved the rhymes and the story, and then getting to finish the rhymes at the end! It was a fun, interactive book.