"Sweet" Activities to Share with Young People This Month

Reading Rockets Offers Activities for Valentine's Day and Black History Month

Looking for sugar-free fun for Valentine’s Day? You’re in luck! Reading Rockets, in conjunction with author Laura Malone Elliott (A String of Hearts), is offering a Valentine’s Day treat that celebrates the power of words to tell someone how you feel. Visit www.readingrockets.org/calendar/valentine and you’ll find a series of easy writing prompts that let kids have fun with Valentine poems and sayings. You’ll also find an e-card, booklists featuring stories about families, friendship, what love looks like, and what love means, and a kid-friendly video of Elliott demonstrating how to make a variety of Valentine cards and writing Valentine poems, including one for her dog, Raven!

Reading Rockets also celebrates Black History Month in February with great resources and recommended reading. You can also watch Reading Rockets' interviews with celebrated African American children's book authors and illustrators, and children's literature historian, Leonard Marcus, who talks about the history of multicultural children's books in the U.S. from the 1960s onward.