The Ballad of Valentine

 Looking for a great upper elementary picture book read aloud for Valentine's Day? We read The Ballad of Valentine by Alison Jackson. 

This book is set to the tune of an 1884 song titled "Oh My Darling, Clementine." A young man writes a ballad chronicling his attempts to let a young woman named Valentine know he's interested in her. The story flows well, especially due to the meter and rhyme.

There are many opportunities to discuss different ways of communication before technology overtook the ones the young man tried:

• mailed letters via post office
• sent a note through trained homing pigeon
• used smoke signals from a bonfire
• tapped a message with Morse code
• rented a mail car
• paid a rider on a pony 
• wrote a message by airplane
• tied a message to a boulder

Activities to do with the book could include:

• determining cause and effect
• researching the history of the U.S. Post Office, homing pigeons, Morse code, The Pony Express, etc.
• adding other ways the man could have communicated with Valentine, such as sign language, email, phone call, text message, etc.
• differentiate which forms of communication were used in the past vs more modern ones

I recommend this book as a fun Valentine's Day activity for grades 3-5. Click the image above or this link to download the Google Doc.