Valentine’s Day Stories for Children

If you’re looking to inspire kindness in the children in your life, try some of these sweet Valentine’s Day stories. Below I have gathered a list of toddler books, picture books, and easy readers that focus on love, generosity, and friendship. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Toddler Books

Construction Site – You’re Just Right: A Valentine Life-the-Flap Book written by Sherri Duskey Rinker and AG Ford

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the construction crew from the bestselling Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site series!

It’s Valentine’s Day at the construction site, and every truck finds a special note just for them—but who is the mystery writer? Lift the flaps to reveal sweet and silly messages, and celebrate the kindness of true friends.

With bestselling author Sherri Duskey Rinker’s lovable rhyming text, and heartwarming illustrations by AG Ford, this interactive Valentine’s tale will bring smiles to big truck fans and their families year after year. – Chronicle Books


The Goodnight Train Valentine written by June Sobel, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith

An ideal valentine for train enthusiasts, bedtime resisters, and Goodnight Train fans! A companion to The Goodnight Train Halloween and The Goodnight Train Easter, this sturdy board book has heart-shaped peekaboo die-cuts on every page.

X O! X O! Choo! Choo!

Love is in the air! Cozy up with someone special and take a Valentine’s Eve ride on the Goodnight Train in this sturdy board book with heart-shaped peekaboo die-cuts on every page. Little ones who love cars, trucks, and things that go will love all of the Goodnight Train books! – Clarion Books


Picture Books

Bigfoot’s Big Heart written by Sarah Glenn Marsh, illustrated by Ishaa Lobo

When Bigfoot loses the valentines he meant to send to his fellow monsters in hiding, scouts from all over the world come together to deliver the letters.

It’s lonely being a monster. But having other mythical pen pals helps. When Bigfoot loses the Valentine’s Day cards he so tenderly made for his friends around the world, a troop of scouts offers to help. But they will have to get creative to find every mythical creature in time! Sarah Glenn Marsh and Ishaa Lobo team up again for a sweet Valentine’s Day tale about the value of friends, both new and old. – Viking Books for Young Readers


Celebrate Love Day! adapted by Alexandra Cassel Schwartz, poses and layouts by Jason Fruchter

A new generation of children love Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, inspired by the classic series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood!

Daniel Tiger celebrates Love Day by making cards for the people he loves. This 8×8 storybook comes with eight cardstock love notes that little tigers can give to their family and friends!

It’s Love Day in the neighborhood, and Daniel is giving cards that say “I love you” to his family and friends. Then, he receives an anonymous card in his school cubby. When Daniel figures out who it’s from, he’s in for a wonderful Love Day surprise! – Simon Spotlight


Hap-pea Valentine’s Day! by Keith Baker

Keith Baker’s New York Times bestselling peas get a Valentine’s Day spin in this picture book filled with lots of loving and giving moments for the peas to share!

It’s Valentine’s Day, and there are lots of hap-pea hearts for the peas to give away. From frilly hearts and silly hearts to growing hearts and glowing hearts, there’s plenty of love to go around. Will you join the peas in giving away some valentines? Any kind will do… Every hap-pea heart says, “I Love You!” – Beach Lane Books


The House of Love written by Adriana Trigiani, illustrated by Amy June Bates

New York Times bestselling adult novelist Adriana Trigiani and beloved illustrator Amy June Bates team up for a heartwarming picture book about a how a family comes together to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Mia Valentina Amore loves valentines. After all, her name means My Valentine. When she wakes up on Valentine’s Day, it looks like just another morning in the rickety old Amore house in the Blue Ridge mountains of Appalachia. But over the course of the day, her home is transformed into the House of Love. Mia and her mama festoon the halls, build a gumdrop tree, bake cupcakes, and most importantly, make valentines for all six of her siblings. But when Mia doesn’t receive her own valentine, she wonders if Mama could have forgotten her.

New York Times bestselling novelist and filmmaker Adriana Trigiani has crafted a tender mother-daughter story that celebrates Valentine’s Day or any day that brings family together. And acclaimed illustrator Amy June Bates brings warmth and coziness to a story that affirms it doesn’t matter where you come from as long as that place is full of love. – Viking Books for Young Readers


How to Love a Grandma written by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Lee Wildish

Discover all the ways you can love a grandma in this unique and heartwarming story by the New York Times bestselling creators of How to Babysit a Grandma and How to Babysit a Grandpa.

You love Grandma, and Grandma loves you! Love her by: sharing with her, helping her, cheering her on, and, most of all, giving her great big hugs. Celebrate all the moments that can make grandmas feel special and cared for during Valentine’s Day and beyond! – Knopf Books for Young Readers


I Spy Love: A Book of Picture Riddles riddles by Dan & Dave Marzollo, photographs by Walter Wick

Love is in the air with a brand-new I Spy book! Can you find Cupid and his bow, a groom with a bride, wedding rings, babies, pets, and stuffed animal hugs? How many different hearts can you search and find? There are hearts on dice, hearts on cards, and hearts on coins. Look for rainbow hearts and zebra hearts. Can you even spot a heart way up in the sky?

I Spy Love is perfect for Valentine’s Day or any day when you need to search for some love. I Spy is a New York Times bestselling series, and Walter Wick’s captivating photographs paired with Jean Marzollo’s clever rhyming puzzles have mesmerized millions of readers for over 30 years. Wick and Marzollo continue to amaze search-and-find fans of all ages. – Cartwheel Books


Love, Violet words by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, pictures by Charlene Chua

Love, Violet by Charlotte Sullivan Wild and Charlene Chua is a touching picture book about friendship and the courage it takes to share your feelings.

Only one person
makes Violet’s heart skip

Of all the kids in Violet’s class, only one leaves her speechless: Mira, the girl with the cheery laugh who races like the wind. If only they could adventure together! But every time Violet tries to tell Mira how she feels, Violet goes shy. As Valentine’s Day approaches, Violet is determined to tell Mira just how special she is.

Charlene Chua’s luminous watercolors bring to life this sweet and gentle picture book about friendship, love, and the courage it takes to share your heart. – Farrar, Strauss and Giroux


Slug in Love written by Rachel Bright, illustrated by Nadia Shireen

From the bestselling author of Love Monster comes the irresistible story of one slug’s search for love in this endearing rhyming picture book perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Doug the slug needs a hug. But who wants to hug a slug called Doug? After a long search for someone to snuggle, lonesome Doug is ready to give up hope. But you never know when love might come flying by! Young readers will love this funny and fabulous tale that shows there’s a friend for everyone. – Simon & Schuster / Paula Wiseman Books


A Unicorn Named Sparkle and the Perfect Valentine written and illustrated by Amy Young

The fifth book in A Unicorn Named Sparkle series is about finding out there’s no perfect way to say “I love you.”

Lucy and a unicorn named Sparkle are back for another funny and sweet adventure.

Valentine’s Day is when you tell the people in your life how much you love them. There’s no one Sparkle loves more than Lucy. He decides to make her the perfect valentine. Except, instead of hands, Sparkle has hooves. He can’t write and he can’t cut. So how is he going to show Lucy that he loves her best of all? – Farrar, Straus and Giroux


Valenslime written by Joy Keller, illustrated by Ashley Belote

A young slime scientist’s efforts to make a Valentine’s Day friend for her slime explode in Valenslime, a clever and funny picture book companion to Joy Keller and Ashley Belote’s Frankenslime.

Victoria Franken, slime scientist, loved her slime. And her slime loved her back.

Ever since the dark and stormy night when Victoria Franken brought her slime to life, she and Goop have been great friends, but when Valentine’s Day rolls around, Victoria comes to the horrifying realization that while she had many friends, Goop only had her.

The only solution is for her to make him a new friend. But when Victoria gets bored waiting for lightning to strike twice, things get a bit out of control! – Feiwel & Friends


Readers

Llama Llama be my valentine! based on the series created by Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama joins the Step into Reading line with a Valentine’s Day story celebrated in the classroom! Based on the hit Netflix television series.

Families will relate to the last minute scramble to create special valentines for classmates in this Llama Llama Step 2 reader. Gilroy Goat is stumped about what to create. But in the end, he comes up with an idea that is all his own!

The beloved character, made famous by Anna Dewdney’s best-selling picture books, is the star of his own original series.

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories, for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. – Random House Books for Young Readers


Stitch’s Valentine written by Tim McCanna, illustrated by the Disney Storybook Art Team

A Step 2 Step into Reading leveled reader starring Stitch from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch as he celebrates Valentine’s Day!

It’s Valentine’s Day, and everyone has a Valentine except Stitch! He heads out to find his alien friend Angel to celebrate with, but can he find her before the day ends? Kids ages 4 to 6 will love this sweet and silly step 2 Step into Reading leveled reader based on Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Step 2 readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories. For children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help. – RH/Disney


Vanishing Valentines adapted by Annie Auerbach

When Valentine’s Day cards and treats go missing throughout Kittydale, the SuperKitties must track down the thief to save the holiday. This pawsome foursome of adorable kitties transform into fierce, furry super heroes anytime justice needs to be served. Based on the hit Disney Junior series SuperKitties, this early reader is perfect for fans aged 4 to 6.

This Level 1 reader is Lexile leveled to align the reader and text at an appropriate level of reading difficulty. The use of simple text and word repetitions helps lead emergent readers to reading success. – Random House / Disney


With Love from Daniel written by Perry Michaels, poses and layouts by Jason Fruchter

A new generation of children love Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, inspired by the classic series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood!

Daniel Tiger shares stories about the people in his life that he loves in this sweet Pre-Level 1 Ready-to-Read perfect for Valentine’s Day or anytime you want to show you care!

Daniel tells his class about the family and friends he loves. He draws pictures to show while he talks about each one and their special memories together, from playing cars with Miss Elaina to Dad Tiger putting Daniel up on his shoulders! – Simon Spotlight

January’s Celebrity Book Club Picks

Bestsellers Club is a service that automatically places you on hold for authors, celebrity picks, nonfiction picks, and fiction picks. Choose any author, celebrity pick, fiction pick, and/or nonfiction pick and The Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! Still have questions? Click here for a list of FAQs.

It’s a new month which means that Jenna Bush Hager and Reese Witherspoon have picked new books for their book clubs! Oprah has also recently announced a new pick. Reminder that if you join Bestsellers Club, you can choose to have their selections automatically put on hold for you.


Jenna Bush Hager has selected Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block for her January pick.

Curious what Homeschooled is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

A heartbreaking, empowering and often hilarious debut memoir about a mother’s all-consuming love, a son’s perilous quest to discover the world beyond the front door and the unregulated homeschool system that impacts millions like him

Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” Hungry for more time with her boy who was growing up too quickly, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her twelve-year-old son’s early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen.

Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.

At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son’s battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother’s insatiable love. – Hanover Square Press


Reese Witherspoon has selected The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave for her January pick.

Curious what The First Time I Saw Him is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

How far would you go for a second chance?

Five years after her husband, Owen, disappeared, Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together, they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas and are putting the past behind them.

But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, she knows that she and Bailey are in danger again.

Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them. As a thrilling drama unfolds, Hannah risks everything to get Bailey to safety—and finds there just might be a way back to Owen and their long-awaited second chance. – Scribner

This title is also available in large print.


Join Bestsellers Club to have Oprah, Jenna, and Reese’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!

Online Reading Challenge – February

Welcome Readers!

Our 2026 Online Reading Challenge is … KNOW YOUR HISTORY! Each month we will be reading about a different observance month and highlighting a main title about that month.

For February, we will be reading books that reflect on the legacy and contributions of African Americans. Our main title for February is Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

The astonishing debut novel from the acclaimed bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, and Pet, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born “with one foot on the other side,” she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters—now protective, now hedonistic—move into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author’s realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace. – Grove Atlantic

Looking for some other books that reflect on the legacy and contributions of African Americans or that are written by Black authors? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – January Wrap-Up

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something to remember the Holocaust this month? In January, we focused on International Holocaust Remembrance Day which falls on January 27th. Are you finishing strong? Or do you still have some months to catch up on? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson. When exploring titles to read that relate to the Holocaust, I knew that I wanted to focus on a different country than Germany. When I discovered Our Darkest Night focuses on Italian Jews, I knew I had found the title I wanted to focus on.

Our Darkest Night tells the story of the Mazin family. It’s the autumn of 1943 and Antonina Mazin lives in Venice, Italy with her parents. Her father, a local doctor, was forced to stop treating patients, but he still finds way to help them in secret. Antonina has been helping her father, but with her mother’s illness, she instead spends time visiting her mother at her care home. With Nazi Germany’s invasion of Italy, Antonina works to convince her father that it is time to leave Venice and travel abroad to hopeful safety. Her father has other plans though as there is no way that he will leave his wife who is too sick to travel behind. His plan is to save Antonina alone.

She is to leave Venice and hide in the countryside with a man who is a friend of the family’s priest. She must change her name, her religion, leave her parents behind, and pretend to be this stranger’s loving wife. Will she and this man, this Nico Gerardi, be able to fool his family and friends? Will they be able to convince them of their love? Will Nina, a city girl, be able to survive farm life? A local Nazi official has taken interest in Nico and Nina’s relationship. His suspicions continue to grow during each unannounced visit. Amidst the chaos of farm life, Nico and Nina grow ever closer. Their feelings deepen changing their relationship to something more meaningful and lasting. The danger amps up, leaving the two to wonder what their future will be.

I found Our Darkest Night to be incredibly well-researched. Jennifer Robson has a beautiful writing style. Every single character was very well-written to the point that they felt real and not only in the author’s imagination. What I most appreciated about this novel was that the author put real emotional depth into her writing and characters. The characters in this novel suffered, but they refused to give up hope. This was one of the most healing pieces of World War II fiction that I have ever read.

Next month, we will be reading about Black History Month.

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

“The truth sometimes lies in what we don’t say, rather than what we say.”
― Mary Kubica, Just the Nicest Couple

If you are looking for a gripping, suspenseful thriller, look no further than author Mary Kubica. Kubica keeps me engaged from start to finish with a gripping storyline and intriguing characters. My latest audiobook, Just the Nicest Couple, had me on the edge of my seat, gasping as Kubica whipped through twists through the last page. Solid thriller read.

Affluent surgeon, Jack Hayes, has gone missing. At first, his wife Nina thinks that he is merely cooling off after a bad fight, but the longer he’s gone, the more worried she becomes. After discovering some truly concerning information, Nina reports him missing. However, Nina is concerned that the police aren’t doing enough to find him, so she investigates his disappearance herself.

Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, is there for her to lean on in her time of need. When Christian, Lily’s husband, returns home from work one day to find Nina in a concerning state, he is worried that something has happened to their unborn child. What Lily shares with him will change their lives forever. With Nina digging for clues into Jake’s disappearance, Lily and Christian will do whatever it takes to hide Lily’s dark secret as long as they can.

This title is also available in large print and CD audiobook.

Knights!

A popular trend I have noticed this year are books about knights! Spanning different genres from science fiction to horror, books featuring knights and medieval times are proving very popular. Below I have gathered a list of recently published knight books. As of this writing, all titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publisher.


The Book of I by David Greig

The years is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead.

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in. – Europa Editions


Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards

Aleys is sixteen years old and unusual: stubborn, bright, and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, Finn, a young scholar, have been learning Latin together in secret—but just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn’t love, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a fiercely independent community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church.

Among these hardworking and strong-willed women, Aleys glimpses for the first time the joys of belonging: a life of song, meaning, and friendship in the markets and along the canals of Bruges. But forces both mystical and political are at work. Illegal translations of scripture, the women’s independence, and a sudden rash of miracles all draw the attention of an ambitious bishop—and bring Aleys and those around her into ever-increasing danger, a danger that will push Aleys to a new understanding of love and sacrifice.

Grounded in the little-told stories of medieval women—mystics, saints, anchoresses, and beguines—and introducing a major new talent, Canticle is a luminous work of historical fiction, vividly evoking a world on the verge of transformation. – Spiegel and Grau


The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side. – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.


The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself. – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.


The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

In an England fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes.

Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other?

As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch? – Orbit


The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god. – Orbit


The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself. – Harper Voyager


Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

Both sweeping and intimate, a majestic novel of love and war that brilliantly evokes the drama and turbulence of medieval France

Thierry Villar is a well-known—even notorious— tavern poet, familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be caught up in the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies.

But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as political struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction.

As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king—and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story.

A new masterwork from the internationally bestselling author of All the Seas of the World, A Brightness Long Ago, and Tigana, Written on the Dark is an elegant tour de force about power and ambition playing out amid the intense human need for art and beauty, and memories to be left behind. – Ace

NEW LIBGUIDE FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES

If you’d like to learn a foreign language you’ve come to the right place! Perhaps you have always wanted to learn a specific language related to your family heritage or to prepare for a long-awaited bucket list trip?  Or, maybe you want to communicate better with others in our diverse community? The Library has an array of language learning resources from complete courses (including an online program) to phrasebooks for travelers, visual dictionaries, and bilingual short stories. We have what you need to get started on your foreign language learning or ESL path. We even have Sign Language learning resources and instructional materials to assist teachers of ESL/EFL.

This new LibGuide highlights resources for each of the top 6 most popular languages to learn (Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Korean), as well as the most commonly spoken foreign languages in the Davenport Area and Quad Cities Region which includes some crossover (Spanish, Vietnamese, German, French, and Chinese).  ESL and Sign Language resources are also in this LibGuide, along with a page of Other Foreign Language resources and Community Resources.

New Fiction about Books

Books about books! What could be better? How about a list of new fiction available for checkout? Below you will find a list of fiction books about books all owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Fiction

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Debut sensation Tessa Calloway is on a whirlwind book tour for her instant bestseller, All This Could Be Yours. In a different city every night, Tessa receives standing ovations from adoring fans while her husband Henry and their two children cheer her on from their brand-new dream house.

But there’s a chilling problem with Tessa’s triumphant book tour—she soon discovers she is being stalked by someone who’s obsessed not only with sabotaging her career, but also with destroying her perfect family back home.

Tessa fears the fallout from an impossible decision she once made—what felt like a genuine deal with the devil—appears to be coming due. And she’s realizing that every high-stakes bargain comes with a high-stakes price. If Tessa can’t untangle who’s threatening to expose her darkest secrets, she’ll lose her career, her family—and possibly her life. – Minotaur Books


The Devil is a Southpaw by Brandon Hobson

Milton Muleborn has envied Matthew Echota, a talented Cherokee artist, ever since they were locked up together in a dangerous juvenile detention center in the late 1980s. Until Matthew escaped, that is.

A novel within a novel, we read here Milton’s dark, sometimes comic, and possibly unreliable account of the story of their childhood even as, years later, he remains jealous of Matthew’s extraordinary abilities and unlikely success. Milton reveals secrets about their friendship, their families, and their nightmarish, surreal, experience of imprisonment. In revisiting the past, he explores the echoing traumas of incarceration and pride. – Ecco


The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

June, 1975.

The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she’s offered a job to ghostwrite her father’s last book. What she doesn’t know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it’s not another horror novel he wants her to write.

After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975. – Sourcebooks

This title is also available in large print.


L.A. Women by Ella Berman

After a steady descent from literary stardom, Lane Warren is back. She’s secured a new book deal based off the life of her sometime friend and, more often, rival Gala Margolis. Lane’s only problem is that notorious free spirit Gala has been missing for months.

Ten years earlier, Gala was a charming socialite and Lane was a Hollywood outsider amidst the glittering 1960s L.A. party scene. Though they were never best friends, Lane found Gala sharp and compelling. Gala liked that Lane took her seriously. They were both writers. They were drawn to each other.

That was until Gala’s star began to rise, and Lane grew envious. Then Lane did something that she wouldn’t ever be able to take back…changing the trajectories of both their lives.

Bold, dazzling, and crackling with tension, L.A. Women plunges readers into the legendary parties and unparalleled creativity of iconic Laurel Canyon, while exploring the impossible choices women face when ambition collides with intimacy. At what cost does great art emerge? And who pays the price? – Berkley

This title is also available in large print.


The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton

London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds is renowned for her talent at sourcing rare antiques for her clients, but she’s never had a request quite like this one. She’s been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy—and her client isn’t the only person determined to procure it at any cost.

Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books, and in the chaotic days following her husband’s unjust imprisonment by Fidel Castro, reading is her only source of solace. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. It’s a dangerous mission that reveals to her the power of one book to change a life.

Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a whirlwind adventure that leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets, and lies… and though Eva cannot yet see it, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches. – Berkley


The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly

2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.

1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late? – Ballantine Books

This title is also available in large print.


Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

Is it time to renew love or start a new chapter?

Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They’ll take a one-month break to date other people, then they’ll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship—and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.

Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way. – Saturday Books

This title is also available in large print.


The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin

You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society…

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club—a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood, and the courage to rewrite their stories.

Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder.

As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts, and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent, but when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything. – Hanover Square Press


Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian

When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student’s searing thesis project.

Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. According to Simone and Ethan, and everyone on campus, their marriage is perfect. That is, until Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, and the couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled.

Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth. – Little, Brown and Company


What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.

2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost. – Knopf

This title is also available in large print.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

“Because he knew, we both knew, that our friendship had always held the capacity for more. The air hummed thicker between us. It startled us with intermittent and unpredictable sparks. This wasn’t the one-way charge of seeing somebody attractive; the charge was striking in both directions.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Overdue

The cover of Overdue by Stephanie Perkins caught my eye from across the library – gorgeous wildflowers with a due date envelope on it screamed bookish romance. Upon starting this read, I knew I was right. This is a grumpy x sunshine, slow-burn romance about finding your way while looking for new beginnings. Ingrid Dahl is a cheery, happy librarian in the mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina. Dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for the last eleven years, the two are content with how life is going. When Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement, their peace shatters. The two find themselves on a one-month break where they plan to spend that month dating other people with the understanding that after that month ends, they will restart their relationship and then get married! Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?!

Well, Ingrid isn’t sure how she will survive this month break, but she knows that she wants to spend this time with one specific person: Macon Nowakowski. Macon is the grumpy coworker who has sat next to her at the library for years (and who she has a secret crush on). Determined to win Macon over, she sets her plan in action. An awkward moment occurs, sending Ingrid spiraling. What was she thinking? How could Macon ever like her? What about Cory? This month break has the power to change Ingrid’s entire life forever, not just her relationship.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins was a beautiful love story of two librarians: she is sunshine and happiness, while he’s grumpy and closed off. This book could have been predictable, but the author instead decides to break the book into separate months, highlighting how each character matures. While this is a love story, the author doesn’t just focus on romantic love. She brings in family, friends, and others to show how love can change. The characters were also incredibly mature while dealing with real life issues (they actually TALKED to each other to solve their problems). Solid four star read.

This title is also available in large print.

2026 Grammy Nominees @ DPL

Every year for the Grammy Awards, artists from various genres come together to celebrate what was noteworthy and impactful this past year in terms of performance, composition, production, and more. The nominees are vast so unfortunately, we’re not able to have every nominee, but we still have a great selection for you here at Davenport Public Library!  Here are the nominees we have available to check out before the big show this year!


Blues

Country

Latin

Jazz

Pop

Rap

R&B

Religious

Rock

Soundtrack


Anyone you’re rooting for this year or wish were nominated? Let us know in the comments! 

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