Dearest readers...: A Letters in youngCanLit book list

(Updated August 2023)

December 7 marks Letter-Writing Day.  And, in each of the following titles, one significant letter or many letters or emails are the basis for the book's plot.  Letters, missives, epistles, memos, post-its, emails, texts and such are communications that figure prominently in each of these tomes, whether the  very essence of the book's format or the impetus by which the story is told.  So, whether you are a teacher wanting to introduce young students to writing letters, or you enjoy the snappiness of short texts, or just love the personal nature of letter communications, these books of youngCanLit have something for everyone.


PICTURE BOOKS

The Gardener
Written by Sarah Stewart
Illustrated by David Small
Farrar, Straus, Giroux
32 pp.
Ages 5–11
1997

The Stamp Collector
Written by Jennifer Lanthier
Illustrations by François Thisdale
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 8+
2012
Reviewed here

Wolf Wanted
Written by Ana Maria Machado
Illustrated by Laurent Cardon
Translated by Elisa Amado
Groundwood Books
40 pp.
Ages 8-9
2010





FICTION

Dear Elsa

Written by Marco Fraticelli
Red Deer Press
240 pp.
Ages 8-12

2023

Reviewed here

Dear Sylvia
Written by Alan Cumyn
Groundwood Books
181 pp.
Ages 8-12
2008

Dear Toni
Written by Cyndi Sand-Eveland
Tundra Books
112 pp.
Ages 8-12
2008

Finding Grace (A Gutsy Girl Book)
Written by Becky Citra
Second Story Press
195 pp.
Ages 9-12
2014

Finding Ruby Starling
Written by Karen Rivers
Alfred A. Levine Books/Scholastic
304 pp.
Ages 10-14
2014
Reviewed here

Fred and the Mysterious Letter
Written by Marie-Danielle Croteau
Illustrated by Bruno St-Aubin
Translated by Sarah Cummins
Formac
61 pp.
Ages 6-8
2005

A Hole in My Heart
Written by Rie Charles
Dundurn
155 pp.
Ages 11-12
2014

Jakeman
Written by Deborah Ellis
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
201 pp.
Ages 8-13
2007

Peggy’s Letters
Written by Jacqueline halsey
Orca Book Publishers
116 pp.
Ages 6-11
2005

The Whole Truth
Written by Kit Pearson
HarperCollins Canada
261 pp.
Ages 9+
2011
Reviewed here




YOUNG ADULT

Apart
Written by R. P. MacIntyre & Wendy MacIntyre
Groundwood
176 pp.
Ages 13-16
2007

Calvin
Written by Martine Leavitt
Groundwood Books
192 pp.
Ages 12+
2015
Reviewed here

Creeps
Written by Darren Hynes
Razorbill/Penguin Canada
309 pp.
Age 13+
2013
Reviewed here

Dance of the Banished
Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
288 pp.
Ages 12+
2014
Reviewed here

Dear Bruce Springstreen
Written by Kevin Major
Doubleday
144 pp.
Ages 10-14
1987

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom
Written by Susin Nielsen
Tundra Books
240 pp.
Ages 11-14
2010

Dear Jo: The Story of Losing Leah
Written by Christina Kilbourne
Lobster Press
190 pp.
Ages 10-15
2007

The Farmerettes
Written by Gisela Tobien Sherman
Second Story Press
348 pp.
Ages 13-18
2015





A Foreign Field
Written by Gillian Chan
Kids Can Press
192 pp.
Ages 10-14
2002

The Girls They Left Behind
Written by Bernice Thurman Hunter
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
191 pp.
Ages 13-15
2005

I’ll be Watching
Written by Pamela Porter
Groundwood Books
280 pp.
Ages 12+
2011
Reviewed here

Last December
Written by Matt Beam
Puffin
161 pp.
Ages 12+
2009

Letters to Julia
Written by Barbara Ware Holmes
HarperCollins Canada
234 pp.
Ages 11-14
1997

Life on the Refrigerator Door: Notes Between a Mother and Daughter
Written by Alice Kuipers
HarperCollins Canada
240 pp.
Ages 12+
2007

Little Red Lies
Written by Julie Johnston
Tundra Books
352 pp.
Ages 10+
2013

An Order of Amelie, Hold the Fries
Written by Nina Schindler
Annick Press
112 pp.
Ages 13+
2004

Rebel’s Tag
Written by K. L. Danman
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 10-14
2007

Slick
Written by Sara Cassidy
Orca Book Publishers
116 pp.
Ages 10-14
2010

The Way We Fall
Written by Megan Crewe
Hyperion Disney Group
308 pp.
Ages 12+
2011
Reviewed here

We Contain Multitudes

Written by Sarah Henstra
Penguin Teen
384 pp.
Ages 14+

2019 

Reviewed here

When Kacey Left
Written by Dawn Green
Red Deer Press
228 pp.
Ages 12+
April 2015
Reviewed here





NON-FICTION

Anastasia's Album
Written by Hugh Brewster
Madison Press Books
63 pp.
Ages 10+
1996

Camp Fossil Eyes: Digging for the Origins of Words
Written by Mark Abley
Annick Press
131 pp.
Ages 9-13
2009

Hold the Oxo!: A Teenage Soldier Writes Home
Written by Marion Fargey Brooker
Dundurn
141 pp.
Ages 12-15
2011