For readers who write back
Dear Reader,
One book. One letter. One Dear Reader at a time.
A children’s literary society where we share a story, then write to one another about our favorite parts.
I read every letter that comes through the Cottage, seal it, and send it on to another Dear Reader. Two kids who have never met end up talking about a book they both loved. No apps, no screens, no likes. Just paper, a pencil, and the feeling of being known.
It starts with a book
Every Dear Reader gets the book.
Each season, I choose one book and send it to every child in the Society. The same book, in a lot of different houses.
Tucked inside is a first letter, written to your reader by name. Who it's from is part of the surprise.
The book is the reason the letters have something to say. Your reader finishes the last page knowing another kid somewhere just finished it too, and wants to tell them about it.
Read it aloud, read it alone, read it under the covers with a flashlight. (The letters are always better when it's been read twice.)
Slowly, on purpose
How a letter travels
A parcel arrives. The book, a first letter written to your reader by name, and blank stationery addressed to nobody yet.
Your reader writes. After the last page, they write a letter about the book to another Dear Reader.
It comes to me. I read it, seal it, and tuck it into the green mailboxes at the Cottage until it’s time to send it on to a child who has the same book on their nightstand. Kids never trade home addresses. Every letter travels through the Cottage.
A letter comes back. Someday soon, a real envelope with your child's name on it, from a friend they found through a story. Each season brings a new book and a new pen pal, and old pen pals can keep writing as long as they like.
Write it at the kitchen table, in the back seat, inside a blanket fort, or with the worm watching. (He's learning to read too.)
The Cottage mailboxes, where every letter waits before it's sent on.
The Dear Reader's Promise
I will read my book to the very end. I will write to a fellow Dear Reader. I will write back when a letter comes for me. I will always be kind. And I will always know that I am Dear.
Every new member signs it on the back of their membership card. Every Dear Reader, in every town, makes the same promise.
A note from Megan
Kids grow best with real things in their hands, time that isn't hurried, and someone who knows their name. A letter is all three.
Something to hold. Paper, a pencil, a stamp to lick (Millie volunteers).
Something to wait for. Waiting a week for the mail is a small, good kind of patience.
Someone who knows their name. Every letter is read by a real person who answers.
A place they belong. A society of kids who love the same books, and one friend in another town who cried at the same ending.
Dear Readers belong to each other. They write about great stories, favorite rocks, the best tree to climb, and whether the tree in Wishtree might have had a few ideas of its own.
From my classroom
It started with a classroom full of readers.
I spent years reading aloud to kids and watching them fall for books. The oldest of my former students are in college now, and the youngest are in fourth grade. They still find me to say hi and to laugh about something from our classroom.
The Dear Readers Society is my classroom, extended. Kids who have never sat in my room, reading the same book, writing to each other, and finding out that they belong to a special society of readers and writers (who also happen to be super hilarious, brilliant, and wonderful).
For the grown-ups
Why letters?
Because kids grow best with real things in their hands, unhurried time, and a sense that they belong.
The Society is built on a few ideas I believe in as a teacher, and that researchers have been studying for years: a childhood with fewer screens, handwriting that helps build readers, reading for fun, and belonging that's built with care.
Read the thinking behind the Society →
Membership dues are $65 a season, or $240 for the full year.
Millie Chief Envelope Licker
The first letter is almost written.
Sign the Ledger. Once the ink is dry, Millie and I get to work.