Deborah Hopkinson

Award Winning Author of Fiction & Nonfiction for Children & Teens

A Letter to My Teacher

A Letter to My Teacher

What is this book about?

Dear Teacher, When­ev­er I had some­thing to tell you, I tugged on your shirt and whis­pered in your ear. This time I’m writ­ing a letter.

So begins this heart­felt pic­ture book about a girl who prefers run­ning and jump­ing to lis­ten­ing and learning—and the teacher who gen­tly inspires her. From stomp­ing through creeks on a field trip to pre­tend­ing to choke when called upon to read aloud, this book’s young hero­ine would be a chal­lenge to any teacher. But this teacher isn’t just any teacher. By lis­ten­ing care­ful­ly and know­ing just the right thing to say, she quick­ly learns that the girl’s unruly behav­ior is due to her strug­gles with read­ing. And at the very end, we learn what this for­mer stu­dent is now: a teacher herself.

From award win­ning author Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son and acclaimed illus­tra­tor Nan­cy Car­pen­ter, this pic­ture book is made to be trea­sured by both those who teach and those who learn.

illustration from Letter to My Teacher
illus­tra­tion from A Let­ter to My Teacher, illus­tra­tion © Nan­cy Car­pen­ter.
Book writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son, pub­lished by G. Schwartz & Wade, 2017.

Reviews

“A valu­able les­son in empa­thy, inter­nal­ized and paid for­ward.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Hopkinson’s mov­ing epis­to­lary text and Carpenter’s emo­tion­al­ly inci­sive flash­backs chron­i­cle the evolv­ing rela­tion­ship between an impul­sive sec­ond grad­er and her life-chang­ing teacher.” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly, starred review)

“The tale will res­onate with those look­ing for an inti­mate por­tray­al of the rela­tion­ship between stu­dent and teacher, who will appre­ci­ate the light it shines on the ways in which teach­ers can impact their stu­dents long after the sin­gle year they spend togeth­er is over.” (School Library Jour­nal)

A Letter to My Teacher

author, Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son
illus­tra­tor, Nan­cy Car­pen­ter
Schwartz & Wade
Pen­guin Ran­dom House
ages 3 to 7, 2017
ISBN 978–0375868450

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