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Sincerely, Emerson: A Girl, Her Letter, and the Helpers All Around Us
One tiny act of kindness can have a huge impact. And in this heartwarming, hopeful, absolutely true story, a simple letter does just that. A true story that quickly went viral, this is now a timely, extraordinary picture book. Sincerely, Emerson follows eleven-year-old Emerson Weber as she writes a letter of thanks to her postal carrier, Doug, and creates a nationwide outpouring of love. This is a story of gratitude, hope, and for all the essential helpers we see everyday, and all those who go un seen. Perfect for sharing alongside such favorites as Pat Zietlow Miller and Jen Hill's Be Kind and Matt de la Peña and Loren Long's Love. There are lots of ways to help the world go Some people collect the trash. Some stock grocery shelves. Some drive buses and trains. Some help people who are sick. Some deliver our mail. And some people write letters.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
3 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
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December 16, 2020The sentiment in the book was nice, but the illustrations irritated me. Some of the images in the book have masks on, referring to this current time of Covid. However, not every person in the book that should have a mask on, does. The kids and crossing guard are wearing masks, as well as the family walking their dog. The florist and customer are also wearing masks. However, the doctor and patient aren't wearing masks. The bus driver, passenger, man selling vegetables, and the purchaser are all not wearing masks, either. Lastly, when the mail carrier is at Emerson's door with packages, he should be wearing a mask, too. The illustrator of this book should have made the decision to have each person wearing a mask, or none of them.
December 21, 2020
I first heard about Emerson on the Harper Kids YouTube channel. I cried while watching her sweet video. I also love to send mail to my friends and family. It's nice to get something special in the mail that isn't a bill or junk mail! I also have deep appreciation of my postal carrier and everything he does. Her lovely book brought a smile to my face and more tears to my eyes. Thank you Emerson for sharing your wonderful story!
January 29, 2022
This was a cute story but the artwork is what sets it a part for me.
In the background of this story's artwork are people wearing mask.
The pandemic is not involved in the topic of this story, but the fact that the artwork gives hints to it makes it special in my eyes because in 20 years and further on into the future such a small detail will mean so much to us.
In the background of this story's artwork are people wearing mask.
The pandemic is not involved in the topic of this story, but the fact that the artwork gives hints to it makes it special in my eyes because in 20 years and further on into the future such a small detail will mean so much to us.
December 31, 2020
What an important message!
January 8, 2021
Review by my 7-year-old daughter: "This is a really cool story and I love true stories. It's so nice of Emerson to think about different people."
June 2, 2022
A lovely true story that will hopefully inspire kids to think about all the community helpers around them.
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January 27, 2022Text-to- To Teaching Connection
"Sincerely, Emerson: A Girl, Her Letter, and the Helpers All Around Us" could be used as an SEL book, and also a lesson book as well. Em in this book thanked her mailman by writing him a letter expressing her gratitude for delivering her letters. Once her mailman talked amongst his co-workers, she received two weeks worth of letters from other professions as well thanking her for her kind words and gratitude. If I were to use this book in my class, I'd have my students think of a person that they truly honor and have them write a letter to them. Even if it's just saying thank you, acknowledging a person and telling them thank you for what you do is so heartfellt.
"Sincerely, Emerson: A Girl, Her Letter, and the Helpers All Around Us" could be used as an SEL book, and also a lesson book as well. Em in this book thanked her mailman by writing him a letter expressing her gratitude for delivering her letters. Once her mailman talked amongst his co-workers, she received two weeks worth of letters from other professions as well thanking her for her kind words and gratitude. If I were to use this book in my class, I'd have my students think of a person that they truly honor and have them write a letter to them. Even if it's just saying thank you, acknowledging a person and telling them thank you for what you do is so heartfellt.
December 14, 2020
What an amazing true story about the importance of kindness! Loved it!
December 21, 2020
This was my feel good picture book of the day. I love writing letters too so this was such a cute book.
January 10, 2021
The true story of how an eleven-year-old's passion for letter writing and at of kindness has a tremendous impact. A great story of gratitude and remembering the essential workers who ae often taken for granted.
December 30, 2025
This will most likely be my last book review of the year. I am a big fan of children’s books, and this one is a beautiful example of why.
Everything- from the playful font on the title, to the author’s note at the very end, especially everything in between completely captivated me!
I disagree with those, arguing and criticizing the illustrations of the book. It is absolutely brilliant; intentionally chaotic, artistically messy, and deeply sincere. It’s almost ironic that Instead of thinking about an important idea the story conveys, we focus on face masks of background characters. That’s just hilarious.
The story introduces a girl who loved writing letters-of all kinds-whether it’s a story, a pun, questions or “life lately” updates. She decorated them deliberately, wrote with her best handwriting- and sent them to everyone she knew. Soon she realizes, she never wrote a letter to the person who makes all of it possible: the mailman, Doug. Once she did, he got touched so deeply-he sent it to his fellow friends, mail carriers. Soon, letters begin pouring back to her from all over, and she writes back to every single one.
Slowly, she started noticing all the people who quietly make life work-the grocers, farmers, hairdressers, doctors, school bus drivers and so many others! The book gently reminds us that there is kindness and reciprocity everywhere-bonding us together, often in ways we overlook in daily hustle.
So don’t forget to say “Thank you”-just because; It may be unexpected, but mean it.
Sincerely
Everything- from the playful font on the title, to the author’s note at the very end, especially everything in between completely captivated me!
I disagree with those, arguing and criticizing the illustrations of the book. It is absolutely brilliant; intentionally chaotic, artistically messy, and deeply sincere. It’s almost ironic that Instead of thinking about an important idea the story conveys, we focus on face masks of background characters. That’s just hilarious.
The story introduces a girl who loved writing letters-of all kinds-whether it’s a story, a pun, questions or “life lately” updates. She decorated them deliberately, wrote with her best handwriting- and sent them to everyone she knew. Soon she realizes, she never wrote a letter to the person who makes all of it possible: the mailman, Doug. Once she did, he got touched so deeply-he sent it to his fellow friends, mail carriers. Soon, letters begin pouring back to her from all over, and she writes back to every single one.
Slowly, she started noticing all the people who quietly make life work-the grocers, farmers, hairdressers, doctors, school bus drivers and so many others! The book gently reminds us that there is kindness and reciprocity everywhere-bonding us together, often in ways we overlook in daily hustle.
So don’t forget to say “Thank you”-just because; It may be unexpected, but mean it.
Sincerely
August 24, 2021
Oh yes! True story, written by and about an 11-year-old girl's experience in writing letters and connecting with people in gratitude. Really beautiful, but in a very alive, cheerful way.
This was VERY much a Covid-19 book , but of the BEST variety. It was full of thankfulness and noticing workers who often fly under the radar and finding new ways to connect. I adored it. :) It had the same feeling of those videos of people singing from balconies during isolation, those various creative ways of thanking nurses, and all those perseverant, hopeful pockets that say, "we're getting through this today, and maybe we can notice new beautiful things along the way." I also appreciated the illustrations featuring people in masks. Covid-19 was never mentioned, but I hope we can look back to this book in future years and be like, "oh yeah, that happened, and it wasn't all bad." I hope the newly discovered attitude of thankfulness present in the book will be habit by then, worn and familiar and all the more beautiful for it.
This was VERY much a Covid-19 book , but of the BEST variety. It was full of thankfulness and noticing workers who often fly under the radar and finding new ways to connect. I adored it. :) It had the same feeling of those videos of people singing from balconies during isolation, those various creative ways of thanking nurses, and all those perseverant, hopeful pockets that say, "we're getting through this today, and maybe we can notice new beautiful things along the way." I also appreciated the illustrations featuring people in masks. Covid-19 was never mentioned, but I hope we can look back to this book in future years and be like, "oh yeah, that happened, and it wasn't all bad." I hope the newly discovered attitude of thankfulness present in the book will be habit by then, worn and familiar and all the more beautiful for it.
February 4, 2021
Emerson really enjoyed writing letters. She liked everything about letters, and sent them to friends and family all over the world. One day, she decided to write a letter to her postman, Doug, thanking him and telling him how important he is. Soon, letters started arriving for Emerson from all over - Doug had shared his letter with other mail carriers and they were writing Emerson back!
Based on the real-life experience of the author, this is a cute story about all the people who are helpers, not only letter carriers, but farmers, grocers, nurses and lots of others. This would be a nice kick off to a letter writing unit, or when talking about helpers.
Cross posted to: https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...
Based on the real-life experience of the author, this is a cute story about all the people who are helpers, not only letter carriers, but farmers, grocers, nurses and lots of others. This would be a nice kick off to a letter writing unit, or when talking about helpers.
Cross posted to: https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...
March 9, 2021
A book with letter writing as its focus is a gift to my Elementary Librarian and English Teacher Degree heart! How sweet to see how one child used her love for letter writing to acknowlege the contributions to so many during this pandemic we have faced. The text is all about the letters and illustrations are perfectly matched as they show so many letters throughout and support the joy Emerson felt writing and receiving these letters. Add to that the note from the author on the last page encouraging others to write letters, too, and this teacher is smitten! Add for all elementary collections as I am sure it will warm hearts and motivate some projects giving thanks to so many in our community that matter so much to our daily lives.
May 30, 2022
This was very cute. Could definitely be used to teach about small acts of kindness and/or being thankful. The illustrations are beautiful. Two little things that annoyed me. 1) The mention of Taylor Swift. While I also like Swift, I feel like this really dates the book and will be it seem old too quickly. 2) Not sure if I would have noticed it or not if it wasn't for reading other people's reviews but the illustrator wasn't consistent with the mask wearing. I get that the family doesn't need the masks inside but the doctor and patient should and also the bus driver and restaurant workers. Then there were people outside wearing masks. It's a nice little homage to the time period (the pandemic isn't actually mentioned) but the inconsistency makes it annoying.
May 17, 2021
This book is about kindness and saying thank you. A girl named Emerson likes to write letters. One day she decides to write a thank you letter to her postman because he helps her send her letters. He shares the thank you with others and they write to Emerson. It makes her happy and she tries to write more thank you letters. This book is about telling people thank you for what they do. Lots of people work hard and we should thank them for their hard work. Being kind makes the world better. (review by Adrian, 4th grade)
July 31, 2022
Reading the tweets sent by Emerson’s dad on May of 2020 shows how special she is and what a huge impact her act of kindness and friendliness made. The message of “one small act of kindness” really rings true. A great connection to a letter writing unit or community helpers or just Kindness SEL topics for K-5 students. One annoyance with the lovely illustrations-some were masked and some weren’t. I get that not all should be masked, but it seemed odd that a doctor wasn’t and people Outside were. Don’t observe too literally, but many students do.
September 26, 2024
"Each letter was a connection. Em's letters made a network of hellos, a network of love."
Emerson loves to write letters ... and decorate them, too. One day it occurred to her that the one who delivered all her letters was the one who was making all these connections possible. So she wrote a thank-you letter to Doug. That one little act set off a chain of events that led to a big box of letters, all thanking her for her kindness. She determines that every job is an act of love.
Based on a true story.
Emerson loves to write letters ... and decorate them, too. One day it occurred to her that the one who delivered all her letters was the one who was making all these connections possible. So she wrote a thank-you letter to Doug. That one little act set off a chain of events that led to a big box of letters, all thanking her for her kindness. She determines that every job is an act of love.
Based on a true story.
January 6, 2021
Super sweet. I got this because my little gran was confused about how I "gave her" something that arrived a week ago, which she has been wearing constantly for a few days. (I had shopped and shipped). She knew I had not arrived, knocked on her door and handed the garment to her. To help her understand how things go through the mail system I decided to look for books about the post office........and this one is adorable.
December 22, 2020
This story is based on a real girl named Emerson who wrote a letter to thank her mail carrier. This was just the beginning for her simple act of gratitude. Her letter was passed on to other mail carriers around the country. Sharing this books with young listeners and older readers could spark the act of thank your letters for essential workers in your area. Highly recommended.
December 29, 2020
Emerson loves to write letters and one day decides to write a special thank you letter to the person who makes the delivery of her messages possible: her Mail Carrier, Doug. Based on a true story, this book illustrates the importance of showing gratitude to the essential workers who keep our world running and encourages children to discover the positive impact of sending a thank you note.
Reviewer 22
Reviewer 22
April 15, 2021
This book is written by 11-year old Emerson Weber and tells the true story of what happens when she decides one day to write her mailman and thank him for all the work he does in delivering all the letters she writes. I love the focus on writing and the lost art of actually writing a letter and sending it in the mail. A charming, sweet story!
February 3, 2021
I love getting letters and I love how Emerson decided to thank her postal carrier, Doug, by writing him a letter. And then Doug shares his letter with his friends, and, well, you just have to read this book to find out what happens next. While you're at it, write a letter to thank someone!
March 27, 2021
What a sweet book! I saw Emerson's story on the news last year and was really touched by it, so I was so excited to read this book. It is such a ray of sunshine and a neat reminder of the impact of kindness and how our communities are connected. Would definitely recommend!
December 24, 2020
What a great true story about a girl from Sioux Falls, South Dakota & how she helped others.
December 26, 2020
A letter to thank the people who make sending letters leads to thanks to all the service workers in her life.
January 4, 2021
Sweet
January 22, 2021
This is such a sweet story about how just a bit of kindness can touch people's hearts.
February 4, 2021
4 stars for this true to life
February 10, 2021
A feel good story of saying thank you & spreading kindness. Great to share with young children. (Library)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews