Here Are Some Things You May Want to Include in Your Letter

Literary Letters

This year, you will be writing letters to me about books that you are reading called Literary Letters. You will be required to do one per term and these letters will count as part of your silent reading grade. Your letter must be set up in the form of a letter (see sample below) and be an appropriate length (minimum 3 full paragraphs) to be accepted. Failure to meet criteria will result in the letter being rewritten to gain credit.

Here are some things you may want to include in your letter:

• Tell me what you think of the book overall. What did you like? What didn’t you like? Why?
• Tell about parts of the book that puzzled you or made you ask questions.
• Tell what you noticed about the characters. Did you like them? Did they change throughout the book?
• Write about something that surprised you or that you found interesting.
• Write your predictions and about whether your predictions were right.
• Tell about connections you made while reading the book. Maybe it reminded you of yourself, of people you know, or of something that happened in your life. Maybe it reminded you of another book. Explain those connections.
• Was there anything particularly interesting about the author’s style? Was it all poetry? A graphic novel?

Here is a sample:

Dear Mr. Bernier,

Recently I read Al Capone Does My Shirts and I have to say that it is one of my favorite books ever. I picked it up because a couple kids have talked about it during book talks and I like historical fiction books so I figured I would give it a shot. When I first started it, I thought it might be kind of boring because it was just about this group of kids living on Alcatraz, but it didn’t take long to get interesting. I can’t believe that these kids grew up on an island with some of the toughest criminals in the world. If we were given the chance, I doubt my parents would move our family out there, no matter how good the job was.

I really liked the characters in the book, especially Moose Flanagan. I can relate to Moose because he loves baseball and so do I. The kids in the book play ball just about every day and they even hope to hit the ball into the prison yard in the hopes that one of the convicts will pick it up and throw it back. In my neighborhood, all the kids get together to play sports all the time. In the spring and summer we play baseball, in the fall we play football, and in the winter we play basketball if the weather isn’t too cold. Moose also has a sister in the book and so do I. He will do anything to help her, even though he doesn’t always want to spend his time hanging out with her. My sister can be annoying sometimes, but I would do anything to help her out just like Moose.

The setting of the book is really unique taking place on a prison island like Alcatraz. Someday I hope I can go visit Alcatraz and see where the story took place. It would be pretty cool to see how close the kids lived to these prisoners. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series, Al Capone Shines My Shoes. I hope it’s as good as this one.

Sincerely,

Andrew Johnson