by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 15, 2010

It's a pig getting valentines! So who's the pig's secret admirer?

In the 1980s, Nancy Carlson started her series of children's books describing a "fun-filled neighborhood" filled with talking animals having sweet human-style adventures. And eventually Carlson turned her imagination on Valentine's Day, and the story of a plucky pig in a plaid skirt named Louanne. On February 14, Louanne peeked in her mailbox "and found the most beautiful valentine she'd ever seen." But it's signed "from your secret admirer" - creating a big mystery that Louanne wants to solve!

The book is even called "The Mysterious Valentine," and judging from the illustration, the valentine is pretty spectacular. There's a winged pig holding Cupid's arrow, with the words "Be Mine," plus "love" written across a fancy banner. The valentine is shaped like a heart, of course, and it's edged with a white lacey fringe. "That's the biggest valentine I've ever seen!" says her friend Harriet.

"Do you know who sent it?"

A Valentine's Day story needs a fun investigation like this, and Nancy Carlson tries to deliver every obligatory stop along the way. Louanne suspects a pesky student named George, but then rules him out because he doesn't have a green pen. Then she spies on the desk of her friend Arnie, and the pocket of her friend Doug. Not only do they not have a green pen, but they react to the pig's pushy investigation with some slapstick retaliation.

The illustrations are simple cartoony sketches, but they help readers to like the plucky little pig. There's other animals in the neighborhood - including a bullying bear in a leather jacket named Mike. It's a little frustrating when Louanne questions the clerk at the card shop - who says he remembers who bought the valentine, but can't remember the man's name. All he remembers is that it was a big man with a curly tail. Louanne goes home dejected, and complains to her father that she can't figure out who sent the valentine.

Er, I'd figured out who sent the valentine before Louanne even made it to school. And I think that's the point, since Louanne never determines the answer herself. "I guess it's just meant to be a mystery," says her father, with a knowing smile. (And he's illustrated with a very prominent curly tail. But by the end of the book Louanne's figured out something else - "who I'm glad DIDN'T send it."

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