Who does not love getting mail in their mail box?  Children especially love getting surprise mail, letters and packages from family and friends, they even love to open up their parent’s junk mail.  This is what the Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg is all about.  This wonderful book follows a day in the life of the Jolly Postman as he delivers mail all over fairytale land.  I remember first having this book read to me when I was in 2^nd grade and I fell in love with it.  I made my parents buy it for me at our student book fair as well as Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s second book in this series, The Jolly Pocket Postman and their third book, The Jolly Christmas Postman.

The book starts off with the Jolly Postman riding his bicycle “Once upon a bicycle, so they say, a Jolly Postman came one day, from over the hills and far away… With a letter for the three bears.”  On the next page is an envelope addressed to the three bears from Goldilocks.  It is a birthday card.  As you continue through the book there is a magazine for the witch of Hansel and Gretel, a Humpty Dumpty puzzle, a game board and many other surprising and fun letters for your child to read.

Another great thing to do with this book if you are a teacher is create your own Jolly Postman book within your classroom.  You can send each student home with an index card for he or she and their parents to write down the child’s favorite recipe and name is something fairytale-ish, such as Sleeping Beauty’s Ice Cream Sandwiches or Cinderella Cupcakes or Pinocchio Bread Sticks, etc. Each child will then bring their recipes back to class, address an envelope to the character they have chosen to name their recipe after and you as the teacher will makes copies of each recipe for each student in your class and you will now have a book of recipes for your students to take home.

You can also make a book at home with your child and you can turn it into the Jolly Postman’s Holiday letters to where you and your child make a new letter for each holiday (maybe Valentine’s day you make a Valentine letter in the shape of a heart, for Christmas, maybe you wrap the letter or use green paper, for Thanksgiving, maybe you write down the recipe to your favorite pie, etc.).  This will be fun for you and your child and it will create long lasting memories every time you read this book to each other.

Janet and Allan Ahlberg have been writing books for over 20 years.  Allan would write the books and Janet would illustrate them.  If you love The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters, you should also check out their other works including: The Jolly Pocket Postman, The Jolly Christmas Postman, Each Peach Pear Plum and more.