The mosaic illustrations are excellent and set the reader in the time period well, but narrative leaves a lot to be desired. The focus is on Valentine, a priest and physician, and his relationship with a jailer and his blind daughter. The story ends abruptly when Valentine is arrested and a note he leaves for the daughter miraculously heals her. There's very little religious context for Valentine as the Christian, the saint, or the martyr.

Very little is known about the real Saint Valentine. There may have been as many as three, but all were martyrs with a feast day of February 14. This book focuses on the St. Valentine of Rome, who lived in the latter half of the third century and may have been a doctor as well as a Christian priest. It relays some of the legends about him. I really love the illustrations by Robert Sabuda, using "mosaics created from marbleized and hand-painted papers (adhered to gray speckletone paper)," as stated on the verso of the book. ( )

Used this book for my b ackground knowledge lesson for Methods of methods class and it can be construed as controversal because there are so many different legends on Valentine's Day, but this is a good book and enjoyed reading and learning from it. 32 pages

Age Appropriateness: Primary, Intermediate
Genre: Folktale
Media: Mosaic
Review: This story has been passed down through genereations orally, so it is a folktale. This is the story of Saint Valentine who was a physician and a priest at a time in the Middle Ages where Christians were being persecuted. His faith and dedication are inspiring. He becomes a great influence in a young blind girl's life and in the end she is healed. In the back of the book, there are also some historical facts about Saint Valentine and the history of Valentine's Day, which is helpful. ( )

This is the perfect book to read your child. In it you read a story about Saint Valentine. It explains how he was a physician that lived in ancient Rome about two hundred years after Christ. That he was a very kind and giving man. He was a physician and a Christian priest at a time when they were persecuted.

His faith and dedication is told as he treats his patients during the day and prays for them all night. The incident the author tells of Saint Valentine ministering to the small blind child is what is purported in this book to be the beginning of the giving of flowers on his feast day.

This is a wonderfully told story. ( )