The Secret Friend

by Joyce Dunbar

Gander is writing a letter to his secret friend. At first, Panda helps him. But the more Gander writes, the less Panda likes it! Could it be that Panda is jealous?

Paperback

First published March 3, 1999

About the author

Joyce Dunbar is an English author of over seventy children’s books, best known for Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go To Sleep, This Is The Star, and the Mouse and Mole series. Born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, she studied English at Goldsmiths College before teaching drama until hearing loss led her to write full time in 1989. Her first children’s book appeared when she was 35, followed by works such as Mundo and the Weather-Child, which explored the experiences of a deaf child and earned critical recognition. Her stories have been adapted for stage, television, and interactive media, with Mouse and Mole becoming a 26-part animated series. She has also been an advocate for deaf awareness, cycling across Cuba for charity. Dunbar lives in Norwich.

Reviews

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet one more reason for children to learn to read and write for themselves!

What a tangled web we weave when, like Gander, we can't write letters on our own! What an extra mess when we can create when we ask a third person, like Panda, to do the writing.

How insulting when somebody, like Gander, refuses to disclose the name of the letter recipient, providing a weird clue instead -- in the case of this book, "My secret friend"!

As for the end of this story, I find it exasperating more than anything.

If you've read this book, Goodreaders, don't spoil that ending. Yet maybe you can COMMENT below and let the rest of us know whether you liked it or not.

RATING THIS BOOK

My policy here on Goodreads is to rate a book in terms of how well it would have satisfied the intended audience. (Which would not be me.) I can think of several reasons why readers might have liked this book. For instance:

* Young readers learn a little something about how to write a letter, including the importance of adding a closing.
* It's a friendship story for preschoolers, and a fairly wholesome one at that.
* How often do kids today even find much mention of snail mail communications? Letters do exist, and need not be considered synonymous with junk mail.

So FIVE STARS to author Joyce Dunbar and illustrator Helen Craig.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for writing letters and how to treat a friend and not to jump to conclusions

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely but Lobel's Frog and Toad do this even better.