Valentine’s Day Stories for Kids
For young children, Valentine’s Day is mostly about cards: the class list, the envelopes, and the question of what to write for the kid who isn’t really a friend. A good Valentine’s Day story for kids keeps it there, in friendship and kindness rather than romance, and gives a child an easy idea for the card that is hard to write.
Here is a complete Valentine’s Day story to read aloud tonight, free. It works as a story about kindness all year. To make one starring your child, by name, it takes about thirty seconds.
Lily and the Twenty-Two Valentines
A free story to read aloud tonight
There were twenty-two names on the class list, and Lily had to make a valentine for every single one. That was the rule. Nobody gets left out.
The first ones were easy. For Maya, who was her best friend, she drew a cat. For Theo, who sat next to her, she drew a cat as well, because Theo also liked cats.
Then she got to Ben. Ben had knocked over her block tower on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he had said her drawing looked like a potato. Lily sat with the red crayon for a long time.
“You don’t have to write that he’s your best friend,” said Dad. “Just write one true thing.” Lily thought. Ben was very, very fast at running. So she wrote: To Ben. You are the fastest. From Lily.
At school the next day Ben read his card twice, and then he ran all the way around the playground, very fast, to show her. And he didn’t say anything about potatoes.
That night Lily counted the valentines she had been given: twenty-one, plus one from Grandma in the mail. She put them in a pile by her bed, red on top, and fell asleep with one hand resting on them.
What should a child write on a valentine for a classmate?
One true, kind thing is plenty: “You are a fast runner,” “I like your drawings,” “Thanks for sharing the glue.” It is easier for a young child than finding a word for how they feel, and it works for every name on the list.
Is this a romantic story?
No. It is about friendship and kindness, which is what Valentine’s Day is for most young children. A personalized story can be about anyone your child wants to make a card for: a friend, a sibling, a grandparent or a teacher.