I saw the trailer for the movie, Dear John, on TV a while back and it caught my fleeting interest because it seemed like the story had some correspondence between a soldier and the girl back home during wartime. But it was one of our wars and they weren’t using email or Skype. Blame it on sleep deprivation or wishful thinking but when I saw the book that the movie is based on at the bookstore I bought it, without so much as cracking the cover to see if there were any letters inside. This book was not what I had hoped. There is one letter in it, and the rest is the boring schmaltz of the Nicholas Sparks mileau, of which I had been previously ignorant. I kind of wish I had remained so.
So you can imagine the pleasure I felt upon opening up a book in the children’s section of the library called Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and finding an entire story made up of letters. “Dear John” was dull compared to 12 year old Lonnie’s letters to his little sister Lily while they are living in separate foster care families in Brooklyn. After the death of their parents, Lonnie, aka Locomotion, tries to stay connected to his little sister by writing letters to her and being “the rememberer” of the family while they are apart. In the process he shares with her his thoughts about family, friendship, war, and peace. The story is beautiful and I strongly recommend it for middle school age kids. Or people like me who like to read letters.
Do you have any favorite books that include letters?
Did you ever see the book series about Griffin & Sabine? I had them a long time ago, and from what I recall, they had never met, but only corresponded. And the books are just actual letters and cards and ephemera. Very beautiful.
I love “Mailing May”. It’s about a girl who can’t afford train fare to visit her Grandma so her parents mail her. It’s based on a true story. “Henry’s Freedom Box” is similar, but it’s about a young man who mails himself to freedom.
I like “Meerkat Mail”, too.
susan, i have and love those books and plan to blog about them sometime. christina, great suggestions. i have never heard of those.
Bill Shapiro has a book called other people’s love letters (and another one about rejection letters). yes, some are email, but some are actual snail mail correspondence!
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/opll/
a friend of mine is a political refugee, living in exile here in vancouver. he is writing a book called “navigation letters”. it’s a collection of short stories that unfold in letters between the characters and it’s loosely based on the correspondence he has had (and imagined) with the important people he has left behind. i have been reading bits and pieces as they roll out of his head, but i do hope they will be published sometime and then you can read them too…