Review: Dear Street by Lindsay Zier-Vogel

 

Genre: Children's 3-7

Published: May 2, 2023

Pages: 40

A girl shares her love for her neighborhood, and finds that love multiplies, in this child-friendly story that encourages mindfulness and gratitude. Alice loves her street. She loves its tall maple trees and marigolds and its apartment buildings with their colorful balconies. But not everyone feels the same. “Grumble, grumble, more construction, grumble, late, grumble,” she overhears. So Alice decides to write her street a love letter, which she leaves for someone to find. Through the seasons, as Alice encounters people grumbling about other things, she writes those things love letters, too, and leaves them to be found. She writes to her local park, a maple tree and even the snow. Then, one day, when Alice finds herself grumbling, she discovers a letter someone else has written to the spring crocuses. And Alice feels the joy she has been spreading to others come back to her! Lindsay Zier-Vogel has created a delightful, uplifting story that celebrates how small acts by a single person can make a difference in a community. It inspires readers to pay attention and appreciate what they encounter every day. Caroline Bonne-Müller's busy color-drenched illustrations beautifully evoke the abundance surrounding everyone (grumbling or not!) every day. This story was inspired by the international Love Lettering Project created by the author, in which participants write love letters to their communities and hide them for strangers to find. An explanation of the project at the end of the story encourages readers to write their own letters. This heartwarming picture book aligns with social studies lessons on cultures and communities, and character education lessons on caring, empathy and initiative.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is a cute little story about a young girl who really likes her neighborhood, but is very aware that her neighbors don't always get the same enjoyment from it. So she decides to write letters to her neighborhood describing what she loves about it and leaving them for neighbors to find. Every time a letter is found, it seems to brighten the day of the person who found it. Then one day Alice is the one who just isn't loving the way things are going, until she finds a letter someone else wrote, about why they love crocuses, and it brightens her day and inspires her to write even more letters. 

The illustrations in this book are very bright, showing the neighborhood through all the seasons. They look almost like crayon drawings, having that kind of light crayoned appearance to them in places. 

I'd be okay reading this book to kids a few times, but I probably wouldn't want to read it ALL the time (it might put ideas in the kids heads after all, and we wouldn't want that. LOL). Overall I give it 3.9 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

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Lindsay Zier-Vogel is a writer and arts educator and the creator of the internationally acclaimed Love Lettering Project. After studying contemporary dance, she received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Her writing has been widely published in Canada and the United Kingdom, and her hand-bound books are housed in the permanent collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto. Since 2001, she has been teaching creative writing workshops in schools and communities. She is also a professor for the professional writing program at Humber College and is a columnist with Open Book. Her debut novel, Letters to Amelia, was published in 2021. Lindsay lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Caroline Bonne-Müller was born in France, raised in the Netherlands and has also lived in Malaysia. After studying fashion design in Amsterdam, she worked as a fashion designer for fourteen years. She has been fascinated by picture books since she was a child, but the idea to illustrate them one day was planted after she had her three children. Caroline has illustrated several picture books, including Portrait of an Artist: Claude Monet; Beatrix and her Bunnies: The Story of Beatrix Potter; and So Much More to Helen! The Passions and Pursuits of Helen Keller. Her illustrations have also appeared in magazines, on greeting cards and even on jigsaw puzzles! Caroline now works and lives near Lucerne, Switzerland, looking over a lake and mountains, with her husband, three kids and four cats.