Two lovelorn bunny rabbits named Valentino and Valenteeny (“Tino and Teeny for short”) admire each other from afar, but they are too shy to move ahead with a friendship. Each rabbit leaves a letter in a hollow log for the other to find, but the letters are torn into pieces and used for bedding material by a nearby mouse family, who provide little asides to the plot in speech balloons. The kindly mice, realizing that they have thwarted Cupid, retrieve the best words from the letters and recombine them into a sweet love poem on a heart-shaped card. Tino and Teeny read the card (each thinking the other is the author), fall in love and, of course, “lived hoppily ever after.” This sweet and simple story offers a fresh idea for Valentine’s Day, but elementary school teachers will also use this for the creative idea of “recombinant poetry,” using words plucked from other sources. (Picture book. 4-8)
