Books to Inspire Letter Writing

Valentine’s Day or Friendship Day can be a great time to introduce letter writing to your class. Most kids can be convinced that this holiday is a good time to tell their friends, family, and special people that they care for them. These books can help your students develop letter writing and provide creative and clever ideas they can imitate.

Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James

All children need to hear or read this book. Written totally in letter format, this book is an exchange between a child who saw a whale in her pond (that she thinks might be hurt) and her teacher Mr. Blueberry who gives her advice on how to take care of the “whale.” It’s a story of the indomitable spirit of a child, and the patient, kind understanding of a teacher - and it’s WONDERFUL. Not only is it a great book to introduce letter writing skills, it inspires kids to be creative in their approach to their letters.

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Just like Dear Mr. Blueberry, this book inspires creativity in kids’ letter writing and it can make teaching letter writing skills a lot more fun. A kid named Duncan just wants to color but when he takes out the crayon box he finds a stack of letters. Each and every crayon wrote to Duncan complaining about their fate as a crayon. Red is angry because she has to work on holidays (like Christmas and Valentine’s Day), gray is annoyed because all Duncan colors with him is elephants and whales (and that’s a lot of gray), and beige is just totally perturbed that she takes second place to BROWN. Many teachers I know, have their students write a sequel to this book based on other colors. It’s a great book for teaching about finding a student’s unique voice when writing. It’s also a motivational lesson as almost all kids feel successful when writing a part of the sequel.

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow

This book is terrific for not only teaching letter writing skills, but for helping students understand persuasive writing. It’s basically a series of letters between a child who wants an iguana and a mom who isn’t too keen on the idea. If students created their own books with a similar style, they would not only have to work on their powers of persuasion, they would have to be able to see a situation through multiple perspectives.

Yours Truly, Goldilocks by Alma Flor Ada

The Three Pigs decide to have a housewarming party (after a very challenging time getting it built). They invite Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, bears, pigs and rabbits. Unsurprisingly, the wolves hear about the party and have an idea for their own party. The story is told through letters and pictures and will make every child in your class chuckle. The one quality that makes this book slightly different is that each letter has all of the traditional letter parts including a heading and return address. If formal letter writing skills are included in your teaching standards, this book would be a fun and instructional choice.

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli

I saved my favorite for last! Eileen Spinelli’s story is about a lonely man who receives a heart-shaped red satin box with a white bow and a message that says, “Somebody loves you.” The gift transforms his life, but what will happen when he finds out that the heart wasn’t really for him? This is a story of kindness and understanding, and the power of believing we are loved. A few years ago, I rewrote the book as a play for my preschoolers. I used Beetle’s music (Yesterday, The Letter, and All You Need is Love) to turn it into a musical. We shared it with family and friends on Valentine’s Day. There’s nothing like being a star on stage at the age of 4.