Review: This book is about a young girl who is home and writing letters to her mom in the military. The book is written fully with letters back and forth between mother and daughter. In the end of the book the girl gets a map that leads her to her mom hidden in the backyard. I absolutely love how it is written in letter form, it makes it different and unique.

Uses: I would use this to discuss why some children in class may struggle at times with sadness. I also would use it to discuss distance with the military as well.

Genre: This book is critical thinking because it is a topic hard to address. Children going through something like this is a hard subject and this book touches on that hard topic.

Media: Watercolor, pencil

“Love, Lizzie: Letters to a Military Mom” by Lisa Tucker McElroy is a great book to keep in elementary classrooms for children who have parents that are deployed, as well as for those students’ peers to gain insight on what those families are going through. I enjoyed the plot and the writing of “Love, Lizzie.” The plot followed letters from Lizzie and some letters from her mother from July to May, when they are reunited. The letters make Lizzie’s experience with her mother away very realistic as we hear from Lizzie what her mother is missing in her life, such as soccer games, birthdays, and holidays. The writing of the book is unique because it is mostly Lizzie speaking, and the text is read as the letters she sends. Lizzie’s perspective is humanizing and creates empathy in readers. ( )

This book made me realize that there aren't just fathers overseas, there are mothers, too. It was heart-warming to read Lizzie's letters to her mother. This book is similar to Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf because the story is actually in Lizzie's letters to her mother overseas.

The book had a foreword by Diane Feinstein and also resources in the back for families with a parent at war. This would be a great book for any child having to deal with this situation.

This is a unique story written in letters from Lizzie to her mother, who is an American soldier fighting in the Middle East. Lizzie is coping with her mother leaving and not really understanding the distance that is between them. Lizzie, like many children with parents in who are soldiers, misses her mom, hopes that she is safe, and that she will come home soon. ( )

I hated the cover on this one so much that I almost didn't read it, but I'm glad I did. While I don't like Paterson's illustrations of people, McElroy's text has a lot of power for letters (from a girl to her mother who is serving overseas) that never break their childlike voice and Paterson's maps and some of the layout really add to what's going on. I also wish that the first page of the book wasn't a lengthy letter to adults written by Senator Dianne Feinstein, as it's completely unnecessary and off-putting. Even so, this is the best book on this subject that I'm aware of. ( )