Published by Tundra Books

Summary:  The narrator enjoys writing letters, loves stamps, but does not like Yolanda.  She writes to her pen pal in Sri Lanka, her grandma in Washington, DC, and her friend who moved to Uganda.  She does not, however, write to Yolanda.  Turns out Yolanda is a post office worker, and the girl has had some bad experiences with her.  Once, she spent an hour drawing a picture on her envelope, only to have Yolanda slap a postage label across it.  Another time, she dropped some change that Yolanda was giving her and didn’t have enough money to buy her stamps.  One day, she gathers up all her lucky charms and goes to the post office, hoping to get anyone but Yolanda to wait on her.  But wouldn’t you know it, Yolanda is the only one working.  So she tries something new: she asks Yolanda how her weekend was.  And Yolanda tells her.  She made the meal from Babette’s Feast, and it was delicious.  The girl realizes she has all kinds of questions about the meal as she walks away, and resolves to get in Yolanda’s line next time so she can ask them. 44 pages; grades K-3.

Pros:  Another picture book celebrating letter-writing and the postal system.  This one has an important message about confronting your fears, especially those around other people, and how sometimes we mask those fears by deciding not to like someone.  Definitely a fun conversation starter.

Cons:  It seemed unlikely that this girl would be captivated by a meal that included turtle soup, caviar, and rum sponge cake.