Dear Readers Club
A correspondence club for children, run by a literacy expert in Barrington, Illinois. Hand-addressed parcels, real wax seals, books chosen by name, and mail in both directions.
DISCOVER OUR
Must-Reads
We Don't Eat Our Classmates
Ryan T. Higgins
The title alone makes children shriek with delight. That's how you know you're in for something special. It's Penelope Rex's first day of school, and she is genuinely thrilled to meet her classmates. The problem? They look absolutely delicious. Ryan T. Higgins has this extraordinary gift for humor that works on every level, kids think it's hilarious, and adults do too. But underneath the absurdity is a genuinely warm story about belonging, impulse control, and learning to see other people as people. This is the book that makes a child beg to go back to the beginning the moment you finish. Start the whole Penelope Rex series from here and don't look back. Perfect for ages 4-8. An absolute read-aloud crowd-pleaser.
Mercy Watson to the Rescue
Kate DiCamillo
To Mr. and Mrs. Watson, Mercy is not just a pig, she's a porcine wonder. And to Mercy, the Watsons are an excellent source of buttered toast, not to mention that buttery-toasty feeling she gets when she snuggles into bed with them. This is not, however, so good for the Watsons' bed. BOOM. CRACK. As the bed slowly sinks through the floor in the middle of the night, Mercy escapes, supposedly to get help. Kate DiCamillo writing at her most purely joyful. Short chapters, big laughs, and retro-gorgeous illustrations by Chris Van Dusen that children want to climb inside. The Mercy Watson series is the gold standard of early chapter books, funny enough for children, charming enough that parents secretly love reading it too. Six books in the sries, each one a delight. Perfect for ages 5-7.
Wishtree
Katherine Applegate
Red is a 216-year-old oak tree. She has seen a lot. She has sheltered generations of families, hosted a colony of animals in her branches, and watched the neighborhood around her change and shift and sometimes break. And now someone has carved a hateful word into her bark, aimed at the new family who just moved in next door. Katherine Applegate, the Newbery Medal–winning author of The One and Only Ivan, tells this story from Red's point of view, in a voice that is wise and wry and deeply, quietly moving. Wishtree is about what it costs to belong somewhere new, and what a community owes the people trying to find their place in it. It is also about how belonging is often made possible not by grand gestures but by small, stubborn acts of neighborliness. A book for readers ages 8-12 and for any adult who needs the reminder that trees have been watching us far longer than we realize ,and that they are, on balance, rooting for us.