No Valentines for Katie

Katie Woo #15

by Fran Manushkin, Tammie Lyon (Illustrator)

Katie Woo's class had a special celebration for Valentine's Day. Katie had lots of fun reading the little candy hearts that her teacher handed out. But when everyone got a special valentine except her, she felt terrible. Could it be that nobody likes Katie Woo?

Genres: Holiday, Picture Books, Asian Literature, Childrens, School, Friendship

32 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

Fran Manushkin is the author of more than fifty books for children, including the Katie Woo series; Big Girl Panties, illustrated by Valeria Petrone; Big Sisters Are the Best, illustrated by Kirsten Richards; The Tushy Book, illustrated by Tracy Dockray; and Baby, Come Out!, illustrated by Ronald Himler and translated into eight languages. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau]

This brought back memories from the 5th grade...PAULA! WHY DID YOU GIVE GILBERT A CARD AND NOT ME! First rejection...first of many :(

[Heidi Burkhart]

So-so.

[Karen Arendt]

Cute beginner reader series

[Edward Creter]

Katie thinks no one wants to wish her happy V-day. A new schoolkid will show her otherwise. Very charming but too short. (Unless you're 3 or 4.)

[Jennifer Zaragoza]

It was a nice book. I like that the end had some follow up questions, activities, and recipes. However, the book itself was just alright. If I were to add this book into my classroom it would just be because of the end activities. Also the Valentine's theme is cute. It is part of a series which makes it nice and could bump it up to a 4/5.

[Pam]

Katie gets so excited about her math project that she forgets to put her name in for a class valentine. A new friend helps save the day.

[Jessica S]

Cute and realistic beginner chapter book that my 3 and 4 year old both enjoyed listening to.

[Sarah]

Katie is left out of a Valentine's day activity when she gets distracted and doesn't follow directions. Does this author teach first grade, or what?

[Dawn]

Katie doesn't think she got a valentine, but it all works out in the end (as it should in an EZR).

[Bookish_globetrotter]

2.5*

[Mariah]

This book, which is only three chapters long, is oddly organized and repetitive for no good reason. Chapter 2 should really be put into the middle of chapter 1 and chapter 3 should just be deleted.

In chapter 1, we see Katie upset about not getting a card from any of her classmates on Valentine's day. Then we find out the reason why she didn't receive a card and one of her classmates volunteers to write something nice about her on the board. By the end of that chapter, she leaves school and walks home with her new friend.

In Chapter 2, however, she is back at school and it's Valentines day, again. The story picks up like the students were just out at recess, not like they had gone home (as described in the first chapter). This second chapter tells of the students making their Valentines day cards. A majority of this wasn't covered in the first chapter so it was new information. It would have been great if we were told this before Katie thought her classmate that got her name didn't have anything nice to say about her. Reading about the other students reading the cards they made for each other first would have shown just how hurt Katie must of been feeling when no one read a card for her.

In chapter 3, it's basically the last half of chapter 1, literally. While reading this to my nephew, I thought that maybe I had somehow gone back to chapter 1, but I soon realized that I was in fact on the right page and I was rereading chapter 1 in chapter 3. There was absolutely nothing new added in this chapter. I hope this was just a glitch because I think it could have been a nice children's story without these issues.

[Barbara]

When Katie doesn't receive a Valentine from the box Miss Winkle has placed in class for the cards, she is hurt until the reason for the slight is discovered. It turns out that she has plenty of friends, and she and Barry, the new boy in class, have a lot more in common than their glasses. This is a sweet way to discuss the feeling of being left out although Katie is upset over nothing in the end.

[Jodie]

My daughter enjoys reading this series. It is perfect for her since she is transitioning from picture books to chapter books. It is helping to build her confidence in her ability to read bigger books.

[Terry]

We read this for the Children's and Young Adult Book Bloggers awards. See our review at the Reading Tub.