Epistolary Novels

Having recently read both The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Shaffer and Barrows) and 84, Charing Cross Road (Hanff)--both excellent books; I highly recommend them!--I got to thinking about books written in letters, as both of these are. It wasn't hard to think of several more, for all ages.

For teens there is Daddy Long-Legs, by Jean Webster. I reviewed this one once before, so you can read more about it here. Then there is Karen Hesse's Letters from Rifka, about a twelve-year-old girl fleeing Russia with her family in 1919. Rifka knows that her letters will never reach her cousin, whom she is writing to, so this book is more like a diary than a true epistolary novel, but I thought it worth including here anyway. And for a more modern version of the epistolary style, there is the TTYL series by Lauren Myracle. These books (TTYL, TTFN, and L8R G8R) are written entirely as a series of instant message conversations between three teen girls.

There are a few selections for middle-grade readers, as well, including P.S. Longer Letter Later and Snail Mail No More, both by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin; Dear Mr. Henshaw, the Newbery winner by Beverly Cleary; and the Regarding the... series by Kate Klise. The latter is a little different in that the books include things like newspaper clippings among the letters.

And lastly, I even found an epistolary picture book--two, actually: Dear Mrs. LaRue and LaRue for Mayor, by Mark Teague, which are composed of letters from a dog to his owner.

I'm sure there are more--let me know if you've read others! I love to write letters, which is probably why these books have such appeal for me; I'm dreaming of the day when I can exchange long, witty letters with anonymous Englishmen who send me books and invite me to visit their country and stay with their family or the old woman next door. A girl can dream, right?

My Little Girl

Those of you who remember Julia Denos from when she worked at The Alphabet Garden might be interested to know that she has illustrated another book. Written by Tim McGraw, My Little Girl tells the story of a little girl's day out with her dad and the fun they have just being together.

Puffin Classics

Looking for a classic? Puffin has just released new paperback editions of several children's classics. Buy two and get a free tote bag!

Titles include:

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Each book has a nicely illustrated cover and an introduction by a current children's/YA author.

Ever

Coming in May: a new book by Gail Carson Levine! So very exciting. Read more at Sarah Miller's blog and go wild.

What Are You Reading?

I am not reading this year with nearly the momentum I had last year (college seems to have cut down a bit on my perceived reading time), but Daddy-Long-Legs, by Jean Webster, only took me a day to finish. The whole book is written in the form of letters from an orphan girl to her anonymous benefactor, the man who is paying her way to college. She only caught a brief glimpse of him once, so all she knows of him is that he is tall. And rich. And she has been told he doesn't like girls. As her repayment for his generosity, she is ordered to write him a letter every month, to which she should not expect a response. Knowing so little of him, least of all his name, she has some trouble coming up with a name to address her letters to:

I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that's sort of insulting to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that's insulting to you, as though money were the only important thing about you. Besides, being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won't stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs.

It is a very enjoyable book, witty and sweet. We don't currently have it in stock here at The Alphabet Garden, but we can order it and have it in a few days if anyone is interested.

What are you reading these days? Anything good? Feel free to share in the comments section.

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day

Meg Cabot has written a lot of books (The Princess Diaries are her most famous, but there are many more). You'd think eventually she'd run out of funny things to say, and her books would go downhill, but for now she seems to be going strong.

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day is her first book for middle-grade readers. The protagonist is a nine-year-old girl who likes rules, because, as she explains, "Rules help make our lives easier. For instance, the rule about not killing people. Obviously, this is a good rule." What she doesn't like so much is the fact that her family is moving. Having to move to a different place makes everything seem unstable, so she makes a list of rules to compensate. Rules make the world seem sturdier--even rules as simple as "Rule #1: Don't stick a spatula down your best friend's throat."

I know there are plenty of books out there for the grades 4-6 reading level about moving, but I especially liked this one because I found Allie so easy to relate to. I remember being nine. I also remember moving when I was seven. It all felt pretty much like Meg Cabot describes it through Allie Finkle's eyes.