See below for books about letters and letter writers, a great Graceful Envelope Contest, the Month of Letters Challenge, a (mailable!) plastic pigeon, typing cows, postcard-posting pigs, Emily Dickinson’s envelope poems, and much more.
Table of Contents
LETTERS IN LITERATURE: ELEMENTARY
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In Doreen Cronin’s wonderful Click, Clack, Moo (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000), Farmer Brown’s cows have acquired a typewriter and promptly begin to make their problems known via letter: “Dear Farmer Brown, The barn is very cold at night. We’d like some electric blankets. Sincerely, The Cows.” Farmer Brown refuses and the cows go on a milk strike. All is finally resolved with the helpful intervention of Duck, who ends up with the typewriter – and promptly fires off a note announcing that the duck pond is boring and the ducks would like a diving board. Hilarious for ages 3 and up. There are several sequels featuring the Click, Clack, Moo characters. |
| Check out the history of typewriters, find out how they work, and download a typewriter font for your computer here. | |
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In Simon Puttock and Russell Ayto’s The Love Bugs (HarperCollins, 2010), Red – a ladybird – receives a letter from a secret admirer who signs himself Blue. Who is he? Blue Dragonfly? After a flurry of mistaken love letters, all eventually resolves in a perfect happy ending. A charming Valentine tale for ages 3-6. |
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Holly Hobbie’s enchanting Toot and Puddle (Little, Brown, 2010) is a tale of two very different pigs: Puddle stays happily at home in Woodcock Pocket while Toot tours the world, sending home accounts of his adventures on postcards. Double-page spreads compare Puddle and Toot’s very different activities, with illustrated postcards from Toot. Many sequels. For ages 3-7. |
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In Karen Kaufman Orloff’s I Wanna Iguana (Putnam Juvenile Books, 2004), Alex’s mother doesn’t want him to have an iguana – so Alex embarks on a persuasive letter campaign. For ages 3-8. |
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In Drew Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel Books, 2013), Duncan opens his box of crayons – and finds a pack of disgruntled letters. Red is sick of working on holidays, coloring Santa Clauses; Purple is annoyed at coloring outside the lines; Blue has had it coloring all those seas and skies. For ages 3-8. |
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In Ezra Jack Keats’s A Letter to Amy (Puffin, 1998), Peter is mailing his friend Amy a special invitation to his birthday party – but as he dashes through a storm to mail it, the wind whips the letter out of his hand. Chasing it, he barrels into Amy herself, knocks her down, and is convinced that now he’s ruined everything. (But he hasn’t.) For ages 3-8. |
| For discussion questions and multidisciplinary activities to accompany the book, see A Letter to Amy Teaching Plan from Scholastic. | |
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In Simon James’s Dear Mr. Blueberry (Aladdin, 1996), Emily, on vacation, writes to her teacher, Mr. Blueberry, for help – she’s worried about the whale living in the pond in her yard. Mr. Blueberry replies that there cannot be a whale in Emily’s pond, since whales live in salt water. Emily adds salt to the pond, names the whale Arthur, and feeds it cornflakes – all the while corresponding with Mr. Blueberry, who continues to insist that there is no whale. Delightful for ages 4-7. |
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By Troy Cummings, Arfy of Can I Be Your Dog? (Random House, 2018) is a master of persuasive letter-writing, as he tries to find himself a home. (“Dear People at Yellow House. WOOF!! Can I be your dog? I am potty trained and I have my own squeaky bone. Also I love to play!”) Nothing works out – but at last Arfy gets a letter from the mail lady, asking to be his person. A sweetheart of a book for ages 4-8. |
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For dog resources for all ages, see All About Dogs. |
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Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books are charmers. Toad is mopey and disaster-prone: his kite won’t fly; his garden won’t grow; he loses lists and buttons; and he looks silly in his striped swimsuit. Frog is cheerful, upbeat, and supportive. They’re a perfect pair – funny, touching, and delightful – and their adventures deal neatly with many of the trials and tribulations of childhood. In Frog and Toad Are Friends (HarperCollins, 2003), one such tribulation centers around the mailbox. Toad is miserable because he never gets mail; the kindhearted Frog promptly writes him a letter – but then entrusts its delivery to a very slow snail. All eventually ends happily, but young readers will sympathize with Toad’s disappointment with his empty mailbox and the awful frustrations of waiting. For ages 4-8. |
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In Josh Funk’s Dear Dragon (Viking, 2016), George and Blaise – in their very different classrooms – have been assigned each other as penpals. They just don’t realize that George is a human boy and Blaise is a dragon. For ages 4-8. |
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Also see Dragons. |
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In Jeff Brown’s Flat Stanley (HarperCollins, 2013), Stanley is a perfectly ordinary 3-D boy until a bulletin board falls on him and squashes him flat. The half-inch-thick Stanley can now slide under doors, fly like a kite, or mail himself across the country by folding himself into an envelope. For ages 4-8. |
| See the Flat Stanley website for games, quizzes, activities, and instructions for sending a Flat Stanley of your own on a mail adventure. | |
| This Flat Stanley Project has suggestions for letter-writing activities. Also see this alternative Flat Stanley Project for suggestions for making and decorating Flat Stanleys and other associated art activities. | |
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Gene Barretta’s Dear Deer (Square Fish, 2010) is a homophone-stuffed letter to Dear Deer from Aunt Ant. For ages 4-8. |
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By Adam Rex, XO, OX (Roaring Brook Press, 2017) is an exchange of letters between a bedazzled and kindly ox and the thoroughly conceited gazelle. (“Thank you for your letter,” the gazelle replies in a form letter. “I hope you understand that I have many admirers and cannot reply to each one personally.”) A delightful love story for ages 4-8. |
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In Judith Caseley’s Dear Annie (Greenwillow, 1994), Annie’s grandfather has been writing her letters ever since the day she was born. When Annie becomes old enough to write letters herself, the two become devoted penpals. A lovely story of a close multigenerational (letter-filled) relationship for ages 4-8. |
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In Help Me, Mr. Mutt: Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, Mr. Mutt, a dog who works as a dog counselor, answers desperate letters from unhappy dogs (Famished in Florida, Underplayed in Utah) while struggling with his own problems with a supercilious cat known as the Queen. Funny and clever for ages 4-8. |
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In Duncan Tonatiuh’s Dear Primo (Harry N. Abrams, 2010), two cousins – Charlie, who lives in America, and Carlitos, who lives in Mexico – exchange letters about their very different daily lives. Included are two dozen vocabulary words in Spanish (easy to understand in context). Attractive illustrations are reminiscent of traditional Mexican art. For ages 4-8. |
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In Alan Durant’s Dear Tooth Fairy (Candlewick, 2004), Holly has lost a tooth, but isn’t sure she wants to leave it for the Tooth Fairy – and so begins an exchange of letters. (“Why do you want my tooth?” Holly demands.) The Tooth Fairy’s replies come in entrancing tiny envelopes attached to pages of the book. For ages 4-8. |
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In Emily Gravett’s Meerkat Mail (Simon & Schuster, 2007), Sunny Meerkat lives in the Kalahari Desert with his large family. The desert is VERY hot and Sunny’s family can be – well, TOO close. So off Sunny goes on a trip, sending picture postcards home every step of the way. (The postcards are right there in the book.) The illustrations are witty and wonderful – I love Emily Gravett! For ages 4-8. |
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Stringbean’s Trip to the Shining Sea by Vera B. Williams and Jennifer Williams (Greenwillow, 1999) is the story of Stringbean’s trip with his older brother Fred from Kansas to the Pacific Ocean, told through descriptive illustrated postcards, complete with handwritten messages, snapshots, and cancelled stamps. For ages 4-9. |
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Mark Teague’s Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School (Scholastic, 2003) is a collection of letters from Ike, a dog, sent to the Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy for such bad behaviors as cat-chasing and stealing chicken pot pie. Illustrations in color (the real Academy, a sunny camp) and in black-and-white (Ike’s take, a grim and awful prison) add to the humor. There are several sequels, all featuring the letters of the irrepressible Ike LaRue. For ages 5-8. |
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Alma Flor Ada’s Dear Peter Rabbit (Atheneum, 1997), is a collection of letters written by, to, and among Peter Rabbit, Baby Bear, Goldilocks (whose surname turns out to be McGregor), the Three Pigs, and a couple of Big Bad Wolves. Sequels in the same format include Yours Truly, Goldilocks (2001) and With Love, Little Red Hen (2004). For ages 5-9. |
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In Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s The Jolly Postman (Little, Brown, 2001), the postman, on his red bicycle, delivers mail to a host of storybook characters. The letters are all tucked in little pockets right there in the book: for example, Baby Bear gets a note of apology from Goldilocks; the Wicked Witch gets an hilarious illustrated advertising circular; the Giant gets a postcard from Jack. For ages 5-10. |
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In Suzy Kline’s Horrible Harry and the Dead Letters (Puffin, 2009) – one of a long series of chapter books starring third-grade detective Harry and pals – Harry’s class is studying color poems, when the post office donates a real mailbox to their room. The kids all take on the role of postal workers – and Harry discovers that a thief is using the mailbox, stealing other students’ special rainbow-colored poetry bookmarks. For ages 7-9. |
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The protagonist of Peggy Gifford’s Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-You Notes (Yearling, 2009) is heading out to California with her twin brother to visit their father – but she has to finish her Christmas thank-you notes first. Procrastination leads to a desperate act with gold spray paint and a copy machine. Funny and clever for ages 7-10. |