Love, Mama - A Book To Melt Your Heart

I adore this new picture book by Jeanette Bradley.

In Love, Mama a young penguin deals with his mother's extended absence. "...Mama didn't come home for dinner. Or at bedtime..."

Beautiful illustrations accompany gentle and lyrical text. The words and pictures will remind young readers that love can stretch over land and sea. It's like The Kissing Hand for children with parents who might have regular business travel or need to leave for their first overnight trip away.

This book shows tender examples of how you can feel close even when circumstances take you far apart for a while. One way you could do that is by making this heart crayon craft.

My kids and I made these together, and it's also what they are handing out for Valentine's Day to their classmates.

All you need are:

1. A bunch of crayons with their wrappers removed.

2. Break them into small pieces and sort by color.

3. Bake them in silicon hearts at 200 degrees F for 10-15 minutes. Cheaper crayons tend to have a higher wax content and will bake slightly faster than higher quality crayons, but all crayons will work.

They take about 15 minutes to cool after you remove them from the oven. However, once they are hardened, they are all set to pop out of the silicon molds and are ready to use.